The Mermaid and the Giant Sea Naga
by Tashasaurous
Summary: AU: In a world where humans, highly anthropomorphic animals, giant nagas and mermaids exist, Sora, cursed to become a Naga at night struggles to find a way to break it, but his efforts to find true love isn't easy and he refuses to eat normal people and mermaids...until he meets Kairi who is orphaned. Their meeting changes everything. WARNING-involves being eaten alive.
1. Chapter 1: Feelings, Meetings and Change

**The Mermaid and the Giant Sea-Naga.**

 **Author's Note: Once again, I'm on a writer's block and this idea has been bugging me since last week. I've been wanting to start, but I've been busy for the last three and a half weeks with very little time to even write as much. So this is a new AU Kingdom Hearts story where humans, highly anthropomorphic animals, giant nagas and mermaids exist.**

 **Warning: This story is possibly one of the darkest stories I've ever written so um...if you don't want to read, that's okay. You don't have to.**

 **Other than that to those who do want to try this out, please enjoy and I'll try my best with it.**

 **I own nothing here.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Feelings, Meetings and Changes.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and warm, the sky was clear blue with fluffy white clouds, the sea glittered like stars under the sunlight, the winds were nice and soft. It was a perfect day for everyone on the land...and even under the sea.

All except for two certain ones, yet neither knew of each other's existance as of yet.

On the wooden docks of the mainland at the beach near a half-modern, half medival kingdom, sat a human boy named Sora, who was sixteen years old who would've been happy for a nice day like today, except that he was not. He sat on the edge of the platform, legs dangling just above the crystal clear blue water, gazing distractedly across the horizon, chin under the palm of his hands, sighing miserbly.

"...Two years and still no way to reverse this." Sora sighed to himself, glancing down at his left hand which was mostly covered in his black fingerless glove before he slid it off and gazed at the scar that was imprinted with a couple of scales of a snake on his skin.

Sighing again, Sora replaced it to cover it up again before groaning and made to lay on his back...only for a girl's face to suddenly appear hovering over him.

"Whoa!" Sora yelped, quickly sitting back up before grumbling as the short-black haired girl Xion, who was a year younger than him, giggled. "Gimme a break, Xion."

"Sora, you distracted bum." Xion scolded with a smirk. "One of these days someone who isn't me or Mickey is gonna find out your secret."

"Oh, sorry." Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, while Xion took a seat next to him. "Xion...will I ever be fully human again?"

"Well, the only way to do that is that you either eat a human or a 'mermaid' to be able to break the spell. Unless we look for an alternative which we haven't found yet." Xion answered, which was the same answer Sora heard from his friend for the past two years.

The teenage boy sighed and looked out at the ocean again. "Or fall in love and get a true loves kiss. Which is next to impossible since you and me are too much like siblings. Plus, I can't eat anyone innocent and I especially haven't gone and eaten mermaids yet. Plus, they're myth so that's out of question."

Rolling her eyes, Xion replied, "Nagas were myths too until you were scratched by one after nearly being eaten by that same Naga. So if Nagas are real, then Mermaids are real too."

"Yeah, I guess. But...I can't bring myself to be like the other Nagas. At least eating seaweed during the night keeps the Naga-cravings down and you know how much I love cheeseburgers and pies and fruit." Sora shrugged hopelessly.

"How about falling in love?" Xion suggested.

"Yeah, well...who's gonna fall in love with a guy who turns into a dangerous Naga anyway? I might as well marry a starfish or a seagull who doesn't identify human stuff right."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the very same time across the ocean on a rock, was a beautiful young mermaid gazing at the sky and occasionally the water, named Kairi, who was sixteen years old in her pink shell-bra and near-matching pink tail. She would've been a happy mermaid, but she wasn't. She sat sat on the edge of the platform, legs dangling just above the crystal clear blue water, gazing distractedly and sighing miserbly.

"...Two years and still an out-cast." Kairi sighed to herself, gently touching her pearl necklace she got from her late mother when she was very young.

Sighing again, Kairi had her hands behind her and groaned when the seagull behind her, surrounded by human 'junk' she'd taken to call as most of them were useless, humming to himself and fiddling with a telescope which he and another mermaid called a 'Biggermijiger' since neither of them knew what it was actually called.

"Scuttle, please. I'm not in the mood today." Kairi sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Ah, don't be grumpy, Kairi. It's a beautiful today!" Scuttle replied cheerfully, placing the telescope on his head like a hat and continued to play with it. "Just think, it's a perfect day for humans to go sailing and swimming and all things like that. Heck, it's a nice day for everybody under the sea too!"

The young mermaid shook her head. "It would be perfect if I wasn't such an outcast after the sea-witch killed my parents and no one believed me and instead insisted it was the Nagas or humans that did that. I've been on my own since then and moved all the way out here thinking I could find a place to belong. But no matter where I go, word had already spread across the ocean. In fact the whole world probably knows by now!"

"Well, at least you have me, that human guy Axel-or was it Lea?-, Ariel, Flounder and-"

"Scuttle!" A new voice called, cutting him off.

Startled and looking, Scuttle used the telescope...only to end up having it backwards which made him think Ariel and Flounder, both young in their teenage years, with Ariel being the same age as Kairi, were in the distance whereas they were actually right up at him.

"Whoa! Mermaid off the port bow!" Scuttle hollared, and for once all day, Kairi giggled which she tried to hide at the bird's silly moment. "Ariel, how you doin' kid?"

But when he lowered it, he realized she was right in front of him, and muttered, "Whoa, what a swim!"

"Oh, Scuttle." Kairi shook her head, slipping into the water and glided towards two of her other only friends. "Have you been looking through sunken ships again?"

"Sure have, Kairi. Look what we found!" Ariel replied, holding out her bag and placing it onto the rock for Kairi and Scuttle to identify.

"Yeah - we were in this sunken ship - it was really creepy." Flounder nodded.

"Human stuff, huh? Hey, lemme see." Scuttle made to use a small anchor to slid down, but had it stuck to his foot and ended up dropping clumsily down in a small crash. Recovering, he went over to the bag and pulled out what Kairi knew was a fork, but neither of her three friends knew that...well, Scuttle thought he did. "Look at this. Wow - this is special - this is very, very unusual."

"What? What is it?" Ariel asked, eagerly.

'Here we go...' Kairi thought, mentally shaking her head.

"It's a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies... to straighten their hair out." Scuttle answered, before twirling it onto the top of his head to make it like he had hair, messing up his feathers, pulled hard while saying, "See - just a little twirl here an' a yank there and - voiolay!"

He yanked hard which made his 'hair' all messy and spring out. "You got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over!" He concluded, handing hte 'dingle hopper' back to Ariel who was fasinated.

' _It's a fork, guys. Humans use that to eat their meals. Those are no different than what we use to eat our seaweed food in the ocean._ ' Kairi thought, but kept it to herself. Really there was no point in correcting them since Scuttle was close friends with Ariel and Flounder.

Scuttle then misidentified a holding smoke pipe as a 'snarfblat' to make fine music and tried to make music by blowing it, only to end up blowing out seaweed. But when he said music, Ariel strained as a memory hit her hard and boy did it hit her hard.

"What it is?" Kairi asked, quickly concerned as she noticed her fellow mermaid's dismayed expression.

"Oh, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father's gonna kill me!" Ariel cried out, quickly packing her collection back into her bag.

"The concert was today?" Flounder cried out, shocked.

"Uh oh...You'd better get home, quickly!" Kairi quickly told Ariel who nodded and took the 'snarfblat' from Scuttle.

"Um, I'm sorry! I gotta go! Bye, Kairi! Thank you, Scuttle!" Ariel waved before she and Flounder back into the ocean to swim back home.

"Anytime, sweetie! Anytime." Scuttle waved back.

"Bye, guys!" Kairi waved, before sighing and muttered, "Ariel's right; King Triton is going to kill her."

"Not kill her...he'll probably just be...a tad angry." Scuttle tried to say optimistically. "Don't know why you're not living in Atlantica since you're a mermaid."

Kairi sighed while leaning against the rock. "But he probably knows about me being an outcast by now. No parents, and everything thanks I was lying when I've been telling the truth the whole time. Not only that, since I know much about the human world too, the worst thing that will happen is I'll be thrown out of the entire ocean or sentenced to death or imprisoned at the very least."

"Well, I didn't know about what happened 'til we met two years ago." Scuttle pointed out.

"Still...even if I did find a place to belong, even if fall in love, who would want to fall in love with an outcasted mermaid anyway? I might as well marry a anthropomorphic mouse who hangs out with two humans, one of them turning into a Naga who eats merpeople and humans." Kairi shook her head.

* * *

 _Back with Sora..._

"...Ever since that Naga named Vanitas scratched me, I've been living in this nightmare and it's like Mr. 'Fancy-Tail' Marluxia said; unless I either fall in love or eat a human and a mermaid soon, I'm stuck like this and come by the end of a certain week if that sea-witch Ursula makes a deal with someone for three days, I'll be stuck as a Naga forever." Sora continued.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out. I got a feeling you're gonna find someone that will fix things up and you'll fall in love with." Xion said optimistically. "Besides, the only ones who know about your secret is me and Mickey."

"And Riku, Roxas and Goofy." Sora sighed, standing up as he kept an eye on the sun. "The sun's gonna set in a few hours. I'd better get going or I'll end up turning into a snake. Later, Xion."

He waved his friend a goodbye before walking away to find a deserted spot to head back into the ocean come sunset. Xion sighed before she gazed at the ocean herself.

 _'...I really wish I could help, Sora. I really do. We could fall in love, but it's like you said; we're too much like siblings and...and I'm in love with Roxas_.' Xion thought to herself.

* * *

 _Back with Kairi..._

"...I'm gonna go and talk to Axel and see what he says. Bye, Scuttle." Kairi waved before diving into the ocean and swam away.

"Uh, yeah...Bye, Kairi." Scuttle waved, awkwardly.

But as Kairi was swimming away, and Sora was talking to a deserted beach, both of them were fully unaware that, watching each of them in a magical orb like a double video camera, was Marluxia, a pink-haired Naga who could use dark magic to do what he would want with himself and those he loved to torture.

"Well, well...Quite a coincidence. An orphaned mermaid who lost her mother and father to the Seawitch Ursula and yet despite that octopus being wicked, no one believes the little girl. Except her friends." Marluxia scoffed. "Yet this is troublesome. If my new sea-servant falls in love with her, he could be restored to his human form and turn her into a human as well. But if he swallows her and Ursula turns another mermaid into a human for three days, they will become human for three days and unless they have their true love's kiss, Sora will become a Naga, and all I have to do, is go inside him and take over."

He smirked, "Then I would take care of the mermaid myself and have her as my next meal." while reaching into a cage nearby where captured mermaids were shivering in fear before picking a helpless one up and gulped her down. "But then again, unless chewed, that still makes them both human briefly for three days. In order for Sora to become a permament Naga, he must chew and swallow either a mermaid or a human."

Marluxia frowned before using his magic to switch over to watching Ariel getting an angry lecture from her father, King Triton who hates humans because of a tragedy twelve years earlier. "Then again, this mermaid will inadvertedly ruin everything. I need to keep a close eye on this one as well. She will very likely become the key to Ursula's goals and my downfall."

Well, he would make sure it wouldn't come to that.

"Demyx!" He sharply ordered.

"Ow!" A yelping voice cried out after a young late-teened Naga bonked his head against a rock ceiling above him from another area where he was sleeping, until Marluxia's voice snapped in his head.

"I want you to keep an eye on that little mermaid in pink and an extra close watch on Sora." Marluxia ordered.

Groaning, Demyx began to swim off from his resting place while asking, "Do I get to eat the mermaid if I spot her alone? Picking off humans who end up sinking after being capsized is lame and they taste gross...especially since you lied about eating a human would turn me back into one, but it turned out the opposite."

"No. She is to be Sora's meal. If both figure out the truth, then we just lost a potential key to our survival." Marluxia said coldly.

"Awwww! But I've been feeding off humans and everytime I go for fish, they swim away before I can catch them! Same thing with the mershrimp. Though I wouldn't mind trying that little mouse guy Sora hangs out with. He has to be less furry than the dog I spat out last week when it tried to escape cannibals." Demyx whined.

"JUST FOLLOW THE GIRL AND SORA!" Marluxia snapped, which made Demyx shriek like a girl before swimming off to do as he is told.

Back in his cave, Marluxia signed in exasperation before facepalming himself.

"...Why did I ever pick him to be a Naga? I could've just eaten him myself to avoid his stupidity." He grumbled. "At least Xigbar and Vanitas were better servants. I lothe the humans who killed them both just after Sora was scratched."

Shaking his head, he continued. "No matter. Sora is our key to survival. Then all of the world will be a generation of future Nagas and soon those who survive the curse will be our feast." Marluxia grinned evilly at this thought.

* * *

Sora sat on the sandy beach as he waited for the sun to set so that he could get this nightmare over and done with. He thought back to the time when he'd been forced into this mess.

How when he was fourteen and he'd been out playing with his friends on the beach, there was an attack by two giant Sea-Nagas who began feasting on those who couldn't escape as everyone made a run for it. Sora had pushed Xion out of the way when the Naga, he later learned to be named Vanitas, attempted to grab her but went for him instead. But Sora had bitten hard on the hand and was tossed back onto land, before being whacked and scratched on the hand which made him go berserk and ended up in the water.

It was then that Sora slowly transformed into a Naga himself while Vanitas and the other Naga were brutally killed by soldiers. Sora himself nearly sank until he was found by Marluxia who offered him a place with their kind. When Sora refused and instead wished to become a human again, Marluxia told him there were only three ways to turn back into a permament human.

 _"If you want to become a full human again, Sora, you must either eat a human, a mermaid, or full in love with either one. However, should Ursula, our ocean world's seawitch, make a deal with someone with three days, you will turn into a human full time until those three days are up and you remain a Naga permamently."_

By the time the sun had rose and Sora returned to land before he drowned, he was saved by Xion, Mickey, Riku and Roxas who saw what happened and as they were the only ones who saw Sora being scratched and that Sora told them everything he'd been told and that he didn't want to eat humans and didn't believe mermaids were real, all five of them agreed it was best kept secret and covered both Sora's hands with gloves before running away and moving into this continant where the beaches were close and they lived in the same house near the kingdom of Prince Eric, hoping to help Sora find someone to fall in love while he kept eating seaweed and normal human food to keep the cravings for mermaids and humans at bay.

"I really don't want to eat people, and even if mermaids were real, I wouldn't wanna eat them either. But I really don't want to be a Naga forever. But who am I gonna fall in love with?" Sora said to himself.

He was about to step into the water to get a headstart on his cursed transformation when something caught his eye; something swimming in the water and occasionally splashing and diving. Sora's eyes widened as he a girl's hair...and a pink tail that came with her, not knowing that it was Kairi who was unaware of him noticing her.

Shaking his head and rubbing his eyes, Sora blinked and she was still there, rapidly vanishing to the side of the docks which were the oldest and the most abandoned; her dark red hair that touched just over her shoulders, her blue eyes and her figure...Sora couldn't believe it. It was a mermaid; a real mermaid!

More than anything, Sora just couldn't stop staring in amazement. He'd never seen such a beautiful figure in his entire life. That mermaid...

"...So beautiful." Sora whispered to himself. He felt his heart hammer, his face feeling warm, and he felt a bit giddy and ticklish. To his dismay, the mermaid vanished around the corner. "Hey, wait!" He called out, but stopped when the sky grew a bit darker and when he looked to see, his eyes widened when the sun was almost gone.

"Ah, no! The sunset!" Sora cried out, and, suddenly growing fearful for the Naga cravings despite having chowed down on a double cheeseburger earlier for lunch, went into the opposite direction while diving underwater and shut his eyes.

The transformation was always painful and terrible and Sora always worried he'd pass out. So as fast as he could in hopes to prevent himself from going after the mermaid and end up eating her, Sora dived as he transformed and his body grew, his clothes disappeared and the lower part of his body transformed into that of a giant snake. As soon as he fully transformed into the giant Sea-Naga, Sora grabbed a large giant handful of seaweed-and narrowly avoiding in grabbing local fish who shrieked in fear before swimming away to avoid in getting eaten-and shoved the plants into his mouth, chewing and swallowing before sighing in relief.

"That was close." Sora said to himself, thankful that the bright side of being a Naga is that he could breath underwater. Though in retrospect, he always wanted to be a merman to breath underwater when he was a little boy just to make friends with the local sea-life. Not eat them.

Still, Sora turned back to where he'd seen the mermaid swim off and smiled. If only he could see her again and meet her without scaring and eating her.

Maybe he might have a chance to meet her tomorrow during the day.

* * *

Unaware that she'd been seen by a human cursed boy, Kairi resurfaced and found another human she was looking for. Lea, who prefered to be called Axel, layed on his back in a dingy which was tied up so that he didn't end up drifted away and stared at the early evening sky, his hands behind his head.

Until Kairi's face suddenly appeared above him.

"Hey, Axel." Kairi greeted.

"Whoa!" Axel sat up in fright as Kairi leaned against the side of the boat, before he realised who it was and asked in surprise, not having heard her. "Where'd you come from?"

The mermaid laughed at her 26 year old human friend, before asking, "How was your day?"

"You know, I sure wish the chickens would hold still once in a while. I fell right on my butt chasin' them around." Axel grumbled, telling him his brief story of his usual day of trying to catch kitchens to get them to lay their eggs.

"I thought you said you and Reno were the runners of town." Kairi teasingly pouted.

The redhead human man looked at her, before gazing ahead of him and said dismissively while pouting a little, "Yeah, whatever. That's got nothin' to do with it." before changing the subject and asked, "So, how'd your day go?"

Kairi sighed, before shrugging. "Same as always. Just wondering around, visiting Scuttle, Ariel and Flounder come over bringing human items and as usual Scuttle gets them wrong."

"Oh yeah? What'd he get wrong this time?" Axel asked, curiously.

"Well, first he called a fork a 'dinglehopper' and said that it was used to straighten people's hair out, and then called a holding hope a 'snarfblat' to make fine music." Kairi answered.

A pause.

Axel bursted out laughing. "A fork to use as a hair-brush and a smoking pipe as an instument? He asked incredulously while wiping away tears of laughter. "Seriously, that bird needs to pay more attention to our activities!"

"Well, that's how Scuttle is, and Ariel and Flounder always believe him." Kairi giggled, before rememdering, "Speaking of which, poor Ariel forgot that today was a concert she was supposed to attend and now her father's going to be angry."

"Ouch." Axel winced after calming down. "I'd hate to be in her place when he finds that out."

"If my parents were here, they'd probably lock me up if they knew I was visiting you. You know, before Ursula killed them." Kairi agreed, sobering as she brought that up.

Axel noticed, because he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Wish there was somethin' I could do to help ya get through this tough time. If you were human or I was a merguy or whatever, I'd probably make you my little sister or something."

Ever since he met Kairi two years ago, at first he'd been shocked to see a real mermaid, but when he discovered she'd been crying and gently comforted her as he was first human she'd ever met, the two became friends and Axel had decided to keep this knowlage a secret.

He'd since then taken on a role as an adoptive brother-figure to her.

Kairi smiled a little. "Thanks, Axel. You're sweet."

"Oh, c'mon. You're embarrassing me here, Kai'." Axel blushed, before sighing. "Anyway, I think you should get going. There's a big hurricane coming tonight and it's gonna be dangerous. Just hope Prince Eric and Grimsby get back before then."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then, right?"

"You can count on that."

The two shared a goodbye before Kairi dove back into the ocean while Axel got up from the boat and onto the beach to head back home before the storm really hit hard and he really didn't want to end up being caught in it. Though he was worried that Kairi might, if she didn't stay underwater until the hurricane passed.

* * *

Sora was growing tired of eating seaweed, but at least it kept the Naga-cravings for humans and/or mermaids at bay. But his mind was still on the mermaid he saw earlier on the surface. He wanted to see her, badly, but he knew that if he saw her now, who knew what would happen. Groaning, Sora layed on his back on the ocean floor and gazed above him.

' _Man...I wish I had a pizza right now. Or spagetti and meatballs with garlic bread._ ' Sora thought to himself.

Suddenly his senses started to go all funny, his scent of smell catching something...delicious. His vision going all hazy and his stomach growled, demanding for something he never felt before, and it was quickly starting to scare him.

Sitting up and wondering what was happening, Sora's eyes widened as, while his vision was going all blank, he spotted a familiar figure swimming in front of him to the side. The mermaid he saw earlier.

' _It's her..._ ' Sora thought, before realising that his greatest fear has come true and to his horror, the seaweed never helped if he ever spotted a mermaid. It only stopped him from going on a hunt and now...now the Naga side of him was quickly catching up.

' _No...! No! I don't...want to...eat her!_ ' Sora desperately tried to look away, holding his head as he shut his eyes. But in the end, the naga-side of him made him slumping forward and his arms dropped.

Only when he straightened himself and opened his eyes, they were glowing and he let out a soft hiss like a snake, eying the mermaid in hunger.

The naga side of Sora had taken over briefly.

* * *

Kairi was making her way to her cave where she lived for quite a while when she stopped, getting a distant feeling that she was being...preyed on. Her stomach was churning and the feeling of being told to swim for her life was strong. She slowly turned as a shadow began to loom over her and she gasped at the sight before her.

A giant Naga was looming her the mermaid with the look of pure hunger. It was Sora.

"A N-naga!" Kairi gasped, terrified. She screamed as Sora made to clasp her with both hands, but she managed to swim up and quickly swam for her life, with the possessed Sora hissing in anger before swimming to catch up to her and eat her.

She swam as fast as she could, going around boulders and into the corel mess forest and hoped that Kairi would lose the giant Naga. But Sora smashed his way through the corel and continued to chase after her, while his subconsciousness could only watch on in horror as the Naga-side of his body had taken over.

While this was going on, the Hurricane had hit and causing it's own chaos above.

Meanwhile, Demyx was still searching for Sora and the mermaid Marluxia was talking about before slumping against a rock and groaned.

"Man...I wish Xigbar and Vanitas were still here. This kind of recon job is more their style..." He whined, before his stomach growled. "And I'm getting hungry."

"Aaaaahhh!" Kairi's voice yelled, as she unknowingly swam over Demyx who looked up to see a pink mermaid swim away.

"Huh-wha?" Demyx blinked, before he was unexpectedly shoved down into the soil by the possessed Sora who shoved his head into the sand and continued on chasing Kairi as though he was possessed.

Finding himself stuck, and unfortunately missing both Sora and Kairi who both vanished into the distance, Demyx struggled to pull his head out of the sand until finally he succeeded. Shaking it and spitting out the sand that got into his mouth, Demyx grumbled.

"Blegh. Okay, I'm not _that_ desperate to try something new to eat." Demyx muttered to himself. Rubbing his sore head, he added, "And what the heck shoved me down anyway? A humpback whale?"

Once again, his stupidity got him to fail his mission.

* * *

Kairi continued on fleeing while Sora continued on chasing and the former looked back and saw that the latter was catching up. If she didn't find a place to hide where he couldn't find and eat her soon, Kairi was going to join her parents in the afterlife.

Spotting another cliff, Kairi quickly went for a dive and swam down into the canyon where she spotted a hole in the wall, and quickly went in there where it was a small cave the size of the Naga's head. The young mermaid leaned against it out of sight of the hole and dared not to breathe or make any noise.

Sora passed the hole, seemingly unaware that his prey was now behind him. But he paused as his caught the scent of her and looked back. There the possessed Naga smirked.

Not hearing anything, Kairi sighed in relief and panted, placing a hand to where she felt her heart beat too quickly for having to swim so fast and so long.

"That was close." She whispered to herself, only to scream when a giant hand suddenly appeared and clasped before pulling her out of the cave. To Kairi's horror, the Naga had found and caught her.

" _I got you, my little prey._ " Sora spoke, and his voice had taken on an echo due to him being possessed by his Naga-side, yet Kairi didn't know this yet.

"Let me go! Let go!" Kairi screamed while futilessly trying to pull herself free, pounding against Sora's fingers. She then gasped as Sora began to draw her towards his opened mouth. "No, please! Don't eat me!" She pleaded.

And inside his head, Sora was pleading his Naga-side to stop and even fought to regain control to save the mermaid. But both pleads fell to deaf ears. Kairi screamed and covered her face, unable to look as she was about to meet her end.

'NO!' Sora's subconsciousness screamed while his possessed body was about to shove the helpless mermaid into his mouth, when an orangy pink glow from the surface began to shine down into the sea and up in the land.

The moment the sun hit him, Sora winced and let out a scream which quickly became gurgled. In the progress, he lets go of Kairi who looked to see that not only she was freed, but also that the Naga who attempted to eat her alive was now clutching at his throat.

"W-what?" The teenage mermaid stuttered.

"T-the sun!" Sora yelled, before somehow managing to tell Kairi, "Run! Or s-swim! Before the N-Naga side...takes over-"

He was unable to finish as Sora quickly lost his Naga-air and was covered in light, before he ended up shrinking and right before Kairi's eyes, he turned back into his human form, his clothes reappearing and all. But During the process, Sora lost consciousness as the water slowly went into his lungs and began sinking.

Kairi couldn't believe what she saw; it was a human that turned into a Naga at night and a human at day. And he just told her that the Naga side possessed him to eat her? She should swim away and let him drown just for trying to gobble her up.

But she couldn't. Her heart was telling her to save him; he was just a victum put under a spell.

So she did. Kairi hesitated a moment before quickly swimming and grabbed him around his body and swam up to the surface, managing to make it to air before she swam towards the nearby shore, where at the same time unknown to her Ariel, who'd curiously went up close to a ship, was doing to same to a human named Eric after he passed out when the ship exploded and sank during the hurricane which had long passed.

It took a good five minutes, but Kairi finally dragged the unconscious human Sora onto dry land and layed next to him. At his unmoving form, she feared that he was dead, and it confused her. She had heard of a warning that when Nagas scratch a human, the human would be cursed to turn into a Naga by sunset and return to human form by sunrise, but it was very risky.

Remembering what Axel told her about 'CPR' or whatever it was called, and seeing him demostrate it once, Kairi awkwardly placed both hands on Sora's chest and pushed hard ten times before blushing and pressed her lips onto Sora's, blowing air into his mouth and his lungs and repeated the process two more times before finally things changed.

Sora coughed and spluttered sea-water out of his lungs while Kairi leaned back a little until the poor boy stopped coughing and moaned, lying back on the sand. Kairi was relieved and, now that the danger had passed, seeing him this close as a human made her feel...quite warm in the face. He looked...so handsome. Briefly she'd forgotten that this was the boy who was cursed to become a Naga and had almost eaten her up. His spiky hair, his cute face, and his blue eyes, which slowly blinked open as Sora's world came back to focus.

But as soon as Sora caught sight of Kairi smiling warmly at him, she gasped softly as her head jerked up, suddenly seeing Xion and an anthropomorphic mouse named Mickey, rush over. Realising she couldn't stay, Kairi hurried back into the ocean and dove just in time and out of sight.

"Sora!" Xion cried out as she and Mickey hurried over to help the still slightly dazed Sora to sit up.

"Sora! Thank goodness. Gosh, we were worried that the hurricane got to ya!" Mickey said in huge relief.

Xion on the other hand, scowled, "Were you trying to give us heart attacks!? Riku and Roxas were attempting to go out and find you before the storm hit!"

But Sora didn't pay attention to either of his friends. Instead, dazed as he stood up, he dreamily said, "That girl...the mermaid-she saved me. Even after...whoa, she was more beautiful up close."

"Uh, Sora? I think you had a bit of a dream." Mickey said, suddenly awkwardly. "I mean, maybe that Naga curse finally got to your head."

"Let's get you home so you can rest for a bit." Xion suggested, placing Sora's arm around her shoulder and helped him walk up to the mainland, with Mickey following. Though both wondered what Sora had been up to and hoped that the curse wasn't getting as bad as they feared.

Watching the three of them leave as she risked peeking from underwater, Kairi could only gaze at Sora's retreating form and upon seeing another human and a mouse being close to him increased her belief that the Naga curse had taken over, because Sora had seen her. She felt guilty for having caused that and was still a nervous-wreck for almost being eaten...

But she couldn't stop thinking about Sora.

* * *

However, unaware to both Kairi and Sora, Marluxia had seen it all and while he was grumbling that Demyx failed to even think about following them.

"Ugh. Dang that nincompoop, Demyx. What's the point of sending him to follow both Sora and that mermaid if he couldn't even pay attention to seeing both of them properly?" Marluxia groaned in exasperation.

He then smiled thinly, "On the other hand, Sora's Naga side is finally catching up. He was close in becoming a permament Naga and in eating that girl. Now, if he could just chew her up, then things would be alright. But first, he has to let his Naga side take full control." and laughed evilly.

* * *

Sora seemed to be hypnotized today. At least that's what his friends thought. In the passing four days, while Sora had yet to see the mermaid whom-as he still felt guilty for nearly eating her up and being unable to stop his Naga-side from doing so-had saved his life when he nearly drowned, and when he had told his friends what happened, at first they were shocked, but they'd forgiven him.

Now he was acting...all ga-ga. He'd been gazing and buying things in red, blue and especially pink. Today in the morning, Mickey, Xion, and their friends Riku and Roxas were in the field woods resting under a tree.

Goofy was working at the cheeseburger joint so he couldn't join them today.

"Do you really think Sora did see a mermaid?" Xion asked, half worried and half excitedly. Worried because Sora could risk in losing all of his humanity and feast on mermaids. Excited because mermaids were very possibly confirmed facts and that she wanted to meet this ocean rescuer.

"I don't think so." Riku shook his head, doubtful. "Sora had to have been hallucinating."

"Yeah, it was probably a girl who doesn't like being in the public." Roxas shrugged in agreement.

Mickey on the other hand said, "Well, I think Sora did see a real mermaid and that she saved him from drowin'. Besides, if she did that, then she must be really nice. I wanna meet her."

"Me too. She really deserves our thanks for saving him." Xion added, only for a flower petal to gently fall onto her head. Blinking, she looked up as did the others when they noticed...Sora sitting on a branch above them, with a flower crown around his head and humming randomly to himself. As usual, the flowers were pink.

"Sora, what on earth are you doing?" Riku asked, exasperated. Roxas looked dumbfounded, Mickey looked confused and Xion tried to hide her giggling behind her hand. She was the only one who knew what Sora was doing.

"Oh, just feeling a little special today." Sora replied, almost dismissively.

A slight pause.

"...It wouldn't happen to be a stirring of special feelings within you, would it?" Mickey asked, starting to slowly get the picture. A nod from Sora confirmed that.

"...Oh boy." Roxas muttered.

* * *

Meanwhile, Axel, who'd been told what happened by Kairi and that he'd been scared so hard he'd nearly had a heart-attack, was finishing up work and began to trek towards the beach where he usually met up with his friend. He wasn't happy with that fact that Kairi almost lost her life by being devored, but when he got the full story and that the Naga was a poor boy who'd fallen victum to a curse and that he had tried to fight the Naga side off, the redhead cooled.

Still, he was concerned that it might happen again. Axel had no love for Nagas, as they were known to be meat-eating giant monsters who feasted on both humans and merpeople, but he couldn't fault the poor kid. If Sora had told Kairi to run, and he only knows the name since Kairi heard Sora's two friends call him that, then even the kid hadn't wanted to eat her.

"...Okay. So far, so good. I don't think this Sora kid lost control yet. But finding him and talkin' to him is easier said than done and how am I supposed to say anything without breaking the secret?" Axel was whispering to himself.

It wasn't until he noticed his friend laying on the beach, half in water, half on land, and she was dreamingly drawing a love heart on the sand, humming to herself. From where Axel was standing, Kairi looked to be all ga-ga.

"Nice picture. Thinkin' of doing sea-art or something?" Axel spoke as he approached and sat next to her to avoid in ruining her work.

"Oh, don't mind me, Axel. I'm just feeling a little special today." Kairi said, half-dreamingly.

"...Uh, this wouldn't happen to be a stirrin' of special feelings, would it?" The older redhead asked, a bit worriedly but knowingly. Kairi's nod confirmed it.

A bit of a pause.

"...Oh."

* * *

"I mean, I just can't stop thinking about the mermaid." Sora continued. "Who knew that they could be so amazing?"

"Are they better than in the made up pictures?" Mickey asked, curiously as Xion's smile widened while both Roxas and Riku rolled their eyes.

Sora's smile grew. "Much better."

* * *

"Who knew I would see someone who would look so dashing? I've met you and you're one of my close friends, and I've seen other humans before. But with Sora...he's different, and not because he's cursed to turn into a Naga at night." Kairi continued.

"Yeah, I'm worried about the Naga part. I just don't want you to end up seeing him and then he eats you up and you end up crushed when you're dead." Axel pointed out.

Kairi giggled. "Oh, of course I'm not going to see him in his Naga form. I want to him again as a human so I wouldn't have to worry. And maybe figure out how to break the spell."

* * *

"If it wasn't for the fact that I turn into a Naga and that side of me almost eaten her up, I could just see her day and night whenever I wanted." Sora added.

"That's what I'm worried about if the Seaweed didn't hold that back." Riku muttered, frowning.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure somethin' out. I mean, we know for sure that Sora won't be a Naga forever-not if we can help it." Mickey said optimistically.

"Plus, she did save Sora's life. If she understood what Sora's going through, maybe she wants to help in turning him back to normal." Xion added.

"Not sure about that." Roxas said.

* * *

"You know, I still haven't found that Sora kid you were talkin' about. Plus, you and I both know we can't reveal our secret meetings." Axel pointed out.

"True, but that doesn't change anything. I've never felt this way before." Kairi said.

* * *

"...Seeing her is the most amazing thing that happened in my life." Sora continued.

* * *

"...The way how he looks and how he smiles..."

* * *

"...The way how she moves gracefully..."

* * *

" _I think...I'm in love._ "

* * *

In both meetings, Sora's friends and Axel were greatly surprised when Sora and Kairi revealed this.

Yet neither of them knew yet that Sora and Kairi were in love with each other and now they worried one the other didn't love the other in return.

"Well...at least Sora finally found somebody he fell in love with." Mickey said once Sora walked away as the sun began to set and he had to leave or he'd be toast.

"Guess it's a matter of the true love's kiss now. That means Sora won't be a Naga anymore!" Xion said excitedly.

"I don't think we should jump to conclusions just yet." Riku pointed out, and when the others looked at him, he looked firm. "Remember, this is a mermaid-if she is real-we're talking about here. What if she doesn't love him in return? Or he was only hallucinating and when he finds that out, he'll be heart-broken."

"Riku's right. Besides, we don't know if Sora was dreaming or not." Roxas agreed.

Mickey and Xion both gasped, then realised that Riku and Roxas had a point. The two shared a concerned look before gazing to where Sora had walked off. Maybe they were over-reacting and it wasn't time yet.

They suddenly realised that Sora shouldn't get his hopes up.

* * *

Kairi was about to leave when Axel called her back, and he told her with great concern, "Please be careful. If anything happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."

"I promise." Kairi promised, before diving back underwater and leaving the very worried Axel behind.

While he was somewhat happy for his friend, it was very complicated. Not only that Sora was a human, but he was a human during the day and a giant flesh-eating Naga during the night, and unless Kairi suddenly turned either one, there was no way either of the two teenagers could be together.

And what if Sora didn't love her back?

"...Wish I could breathe underwater." Axel whispered to himself.

* * *

Hours later, Kairi was laying on the rock on the sea-floor, and while she was still looking out for any signs of danger in case Sora lost control in his Naga form again, she couldn't stop thinking about him in general. She told Scuttle the moment she left Axel and the seagull was delighted and wished her luck to meet Sora in his human form again.

Right now, she was happily lying on her front, plucking the petals from the sea-flower, wondering if Sora loved her back.

"...He loves me...he loves me not...he loves me...he loves me not...He loves me!" Kairi giggled happily and hugged the last petal. "I knew it! I knew it, I knew it!"

Immediately knowing what she had to do and knowing where Ariel and Flounder would be as they had shown her Ariel's collection in the cave she used earlier, Kairi said to herself, "Wait 'till I tell the others!"

It was late, and Axel was home right now. So Ariel and Flounder were Kairi's next bet.

Unfortunately, as she made to enter the cave when she got there, Kairi froze stiff just outside the entrance and stopped herself from gasping aloud. While two of her friends were inside the cave...so was Ariel's father, the aging ruler of merpeople; King Triton, and Sebastian the red Crab who was the King's advisor and composer. Also in the cave was a statue of a human prince, which Kairi quickly realised was quite possibly Prince Eric, and that...like Kairi, Ariel was in love with a human.

And Triton was shocked, dismayed and furious.

"...Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!" Triton demanded.

"I don't care!" Ariel stubbornly replied, hiding behind the statue.

Even though she felt guilty for seeming abandoning her friends, Kairi quickly hid herself from and, hearing Triton use his magical Trident to destroy everything Ariel collected, the pink-finned mermaid, tears forming and unable to stand by, quickly swam away. Feeling like she was betraying Ariel by escaping, Kairi couldn't risk in suffering the same punishment and knowing that her friend is to be shunned and heartbroken for the rest of her life, it made her feel twice of an outcast now more than ever because Kairi herself was in love with a human, just like Ariel.

Unaware that once Triton was done and seeing his youngest daughter breakdown crying, he immediately felt guilty for losing his temper and ashamed, regretting what he had done. So he silently left, unable to look at Ariel in the eye.

Once in a safe distance and out of the sight of the King, Kairi sat on the ocean floor, leaning against the rock behind her and then buried her face in her arms and began crying herself.

What had she been thinking? Kairi couldn't meet Sora now, let alone be with him even if she wanted to. He was a human cursed to be a Naga at night, and she was just an orphaned mermaid, looked down by everyone except for her four only friends...

Well, one now. Kairi couldn't be near Ariel and Flounder, and Scuttle's life was probably at risk if Triton ever met him. So Axel was really the only friend she had left.

Even then, what if Triton discovered she had been breaking the rules that humans and merpeople should never be made contact?

This was all Ursula's fault! If that monster of a witch hadn't killed her parents, Kairi wouldn't be in this situation right now. She found herself very much alone all over again and she'd just been stripped from her friends without anything happening to them.

So lost in her thoughts and crying, Kairi didn't even notice that Ariel was being lead by two eels towards a nearby monster caven, followed secretly by Flounder and Sebastian, where Ursula resides.

Calming down a little after another five minutes, Kairi fingered her necklace and clutched it gently.

"Mother...I wish you were here. Why did you and Father had to be taken away from me? What can I do now?" Kairi whispered.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sora had been feeding on Seaweed again, and sighed. Despite that he really wanted to meet the mermaid again, he was afraid that he would end up losing control again and this time he would end up eating her up. He couldn't bear to handle it. Yes he was in love with her, but she was a mermaid.

Unless she turned into a human or Sora turned into a merman, he was stuck.

"Great. I finally found someone I'm in love with, and she's a whole different species! How can I live with that?" Sora groaned, wanting to smack himself for not thinking this through.

Sighing, Sora slumped. How was he going to make this less complicated?

Unfortunately, the familiar scent was caught and Sora quickly felt the familiar feeling he felt nearly five days ago and held his head, trying to mentally fight the Naga-side of him attempting to control him.

"No...! No! I won't...let you use me!...Ugh!" Sora grunted and hissed...and lost the fight once more.

* * *

Kairi was so absorbed in her newest problem and loniness, when she gasped as the familiar giant shadow loomed over her and before she could look behind her, Sora, once again possessed by his Naga-half, clasped her with his hand and began drawing her towards his face.

While inside his mind, Sora found himself suddenly restrained by a mental tail of a giant Naga.

' _No! Let her go!_ ' Sora pleaded, but he was trapped, and this time he was powerless as the mermaid he'd fallen in love with was going to be eaten and trapped inside his stomach. What would the others say about this? How could Sora live with himself like this?

"Let go of me!" Kairi cried out, but like before, she was powerless and helpless. This time the sun wouldn't rise on time and Sora was going to eat her for real. She shuddered, frightened as the Naga began to gobble her up and Kairi screamed while shutting her eyes.

Not that it mattered, because she lost everything and it was not only Ursula's fault, it was her own fault as well.

Sora gobbled the mermaid whole while possessed.

'Nooooooooo!' Sora screamed in horrified dismay as the Naga-side of him had gobbled up the girl of his dreams. Struggling to break free from the restrains, Sora pulled hard before he pulled himself out and without really thinking, punching the air in front of him.

This made him regain control of his own body and stopped himself from chewing the mermaid inside his mouth into pieces, but unfortunately inadvertedly swallowed hard and when he felt something lumpy and long slid down into his stomach, Sora gasped in horror at what'd just done.

"No...How did I...No!" Sora whispered, dismayed, guilt-ridden and heart-broken. He'd just swallowed the mermaid he loved whole, and now she was trapped inside his stomach. She was gone.

"...This wasn't what I wanted..." Sora choaked a sob, before breaking down crying, unaware of what was happening in Ursula's hovel behind him, until lights were flashing and soon Sora felt himself suddenly transform, and it didn't help that the sun was rising.

Quickly feeling the jolting pain, and clutching his stomach as he felt as though he was going to be sick, Sora knew that he had to resurface and fast despite knowing that he'd eaten an innocent mermaid who'd saved his life up. None the less, Sora quickly swam up towards the surface, but as his did, his body was going into full transformation and the rising inside him quickly grew.

Just as he neared the surface and his body was shrinking, Sora couldn't hold back anymore and unexpectedly spat out the still alive Kairi who was glowing herself unexpectedly and was holding the lower part of her body in agony, as she suddenly realised, upon being brought back out when she thought she would be trapped inside the terrifying giant stomach for the rest of her life, that she couldn't breathe. Water was getting uncomfortably into her body which never happened before.

Sora, almost fully human and briefly seeing Kairi, alive but in pain, gasped even when he was running out of air himself and without thinking, he reached and grabbed her wrist as he was back in normal side before they both quickly resurfaced, breathing in the early morning air, as did Ariel nearby them as Flounder and Sebastian carried her to shore.

Panting and losing consciousness, Sora carried the unconscious Kairi, holding her to his chest in one arm. Eventually the two crawled onto shore and collasped onto the sand on the beach. Sora by then passed out, unaware that the scar on his left hand faded behind his glove.

Kairi on the other hand, barely gazed at the familiar figure of Sora, muttering his name, before passing out herself. Unaware that her fin had transformed into a pair of legs.

She had become a human.

* * *

 **A/N: I think this story will be only three chapters because I didn't want to make it several chapters. Hopefully I'll be able to post the next chapter tomorrow.**

 **See you then!**


	2. Chapter 2: Learning to be a Human

**Author's Note: I think this will be only two or three chapters long. Other than that, there's not much else to say.**

 **I own nothing here.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Learning to be a Human.

Axel yawned loudly, stretching his arms up above his head and groaned as he sat on the bench in town near the river where people toured or went fishing. Dark circles surrounded his eyes as he felt the urge to just simply go back to sleep, but he knew he couldn't. He had a lot on his plate today.

More than anything, he was worried about Kairi.

"You look like you spend the night awake." A familiar voice, very close to his own, spoke. Axel looked up to see his brother, Reno, standing next to him with their friends and co-workers; Rude, Cloud, Zack, Tifa, and Cissnei.

"I look like it because I haven't been sleeping well at all. Had trouble just _falling_ asleep. Might as well been staying up all night at this rate." Axel groaned, leaning his head on the back of the bench.

"Ya' know, the last time this happened was when we were kids." Reno pointed out, skeptically.

"You had the same problem and besides, one; we were kids, and two; we were up secretly playing 'till we got into trouble with Mom and Dad." His brother retorted.

"So why did you have trouble falling asleep last night?" Cissnei asked.

Axel hesitated. He knew he couldn't tell them the truth. He promised Kairi to keep her and the merfolk safe. So instead, he shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe it was the hormones or somethin'. Maybe a little nap at the beach might help."

"You're going to fall asleep on the beach? What if it rains?" Tifa asked, skeptically.

"I'll take my chances." Axel replied, standing up. "I won't long. Besides, I've been requested to spend a few days at the Palace this week, via Grimsby's invitation. Something about needing help to get Prince Eric's head out of the ocean or whatever."

"How come you were invited?" Zack asked.

"Ask the old guy. Heck, he's old enough to be my grandfather."

"Be careful. If he hears that, you could end up in prison." Cloud warned, and Rude grunted in agreement.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Please, that's nothing compared to being eaten by a Naga. If I had to choose, I'd rather be stuck in jail than being stuck in a mutant-snake's stomach. Got it memorized?"

"You got a point." The blonde-haired man muttered. "I heard that two years ago some poor kid was eaten by a Naga at a beach in another town before that Naga and another one during the attack were killed."

Axel tried not to stiffen when he heard this. Two years ago when that attack happened, that was the year when Kairi lost her parents to that Seawitch and had been made an outcast that had her move to here in this regional area. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"I heard that four teenagers, a mouse and a dog vanished from that town." Tifa added, while unaware to them, Mickey and Xion were walking towards the beach when they briefly heard this part of the conversation while passing, and when they did, they both stiffened before sharing an worried glance before continuing on and tried to act as normally as possible, with Mickey whistling innocently his favorite song.

"No one knows what happened to them." Rude agreed.

"Do you really believe in all that nonsense? Nagas? Really?" Cissnei rolled her eyes. "It's just as ridiculous as the sailors claiming that merpeople are real."

Axel again tried not to stiffen. Oh merpeople were real, alright. He was close friends with one. Secretly.

"Nagas, I believe. Heck, those things give me nightmares everytime I hear 'bout them." Reno shuddered slightly. "Merpeople on the other hand, that's like asking for a nicer version of Nagas, only them being half-fish and not meat-eating."

"I'm already having trouble sleeping as it is." Axel whined. "Are ya' trying to give me nightmares to make it worse?"

"Whoa there, bro. Since when were you a chicken?" Reno teased.

"Reno, we're runners. Chasing chickens for their eggs is our job. You'll have to excuse me for not being comfortable with giant snake-people who have normal people for breakfest, lunch and dinner. And on that subject, I'm outta here. See you later." Axel responded before walking off, leaving his brother and friends behind.

* * *

Once they were in the safe distance, and hiding near the alleyway, Xion and Mickey both hidden themselves between two buildings and sighed in relief.

"Phew! That was close." Mickey sighed.

"Too close." Xion nodded in agreement. "Do you think our families had already spread word about us being missing? What if they find out that we're here and that Sora's a you-know-what?"

"Oh, don't worry, Xion. I'm sure they haven't figured that out yet. As long as we're careful, it'll work out." Mickey whispered.

Unfortunately, they were briefly unaware that Axel, who'd decided to head to the east side beach, passed them and down their usual path. Fortunately, though, he'd been unaware of their conversation as he just continued on. It wasn't until the tree fern and tropical bushes that he saw a familiar figure lying on the beach and his eyes widened in shock and horror.

Kairi layed on the beach, with a spiky-haired boy next to her.

"Kairi!" Axel gasped, breaking into a run and fearing for his friend's well being. But as he made it to her, another shock sank in. Gone were her pink fin. In it's place was a pair of thin and beautiful legs. What in the world happened?

Kairi...had become a human?

Shaking his head and deciding to ask later, he cradled her in his arms and shook her. "Kairi? Hey, Kai'!"

Stirring and moaning, Kairi's eyes opened as her world slowly returned to her and the first thing she saw was a familiar redhaired man who held an expression of great concern.

"Axel...?" Kairi muttered.

Axel sighed in relief, "Oh, thank Ifrit. Are you alright?"

"...Yeah. Just a bit dizzy and...why does my later half feel strange and doubled?" Kairi replied, realising that for the first time she couldn't feel her tail, but she felt something new.

"You mean you don't have a clue?" Her friend asked, puzzled.

"About what?" The mermaid, or rather,the former mermaid, asked, confused.

"Uh...you might wanna take a look at your legs." Axel awkwardly suggested, and then realised another problem which made him try and focus on her upper half of her body.

Skeptical and even more confused while wondering what Axel was talking about, Kairi looked down and was expecting to see her fin. Instead, when she did, the real shock and realization sank in almost immediately. In the place of her tail were indeed legs. Her very own legs. She lifted one of them and tested it out in her control. Shock soon turned into amazement.

"I...I have legs. Axel, I have legs!" Kairi began to say, excitedly. "I'm a human! That means I can walk on land now!"

"Yeah, great and all and I'm happy for ya'. But, what the heck happened? And who's this kid?" Axel asked. He was indeed happy for his friend to be human now, but first he had to know what transpired into leading his mermaid friend to become a human.

Suddenly remembering what happened, Kairi turned her attention to Sora who began to groan as he stirred.

"Oh! Sora!" Kairi cried out, and Axel gasped softly. So this spiky-haired kid is the Sora that turns into a Naga at night Kairi talked about?

Groaning, Sora blinked his eyes open and when his vision become clear, a concerned and relieved Kairi came into view. Almost immediately his memories returned to him and Sora sat up straight and was very relieved himself. The mermiad...she was alive!

"You're...you're the mermaid who saved me! Oh, thank goodness! I was afraid that I'd eaten you! Must've been a dream." Sora sighed in relief.

"Um...actually-"

"Hey, hold on now. What do you mean you'd eaten her? What's goin' on here?" Axel cut Kairi off and demanded to Sora.

Seeing Axel and realising that Sora just blurted out, he immediately knew he was in trouble.

"Uh oh...I...uh...well, um...Huh?" Sora blinked when he looked down and shock and surprise was drawn into him. In the place of Kairi's tail was a pair of legs. Blushing he immediately looked back up and asked, "Hold on...you turned into a human?"

"It came as a surprise to me too. It must've happened after you spat me back out when you turning back into your human self." Kairi replied and thought.

"So...it wasn't a dream..." Sora muttered, renewed guilt forming. "I'm really sorry. I didn't want to eat you. I really didn't! The Naga-side of me took over and I couldn't stop it from forcing me to swallow you. I guess it was luck that I turned back into a human that had me get you out. What I don't get is that how my transformation turned you into a human too."

"You know...me neither. But I don't blame you for that. In fact, I think you saved me from drowning when I turned into a human." Kairi replied.

Axel though, while he couldn't blame the kid either for what happened, he still wanted to try and put the pieces together. "Lemme get this straight. Your 'Naga-side' took over your head like you were possessed by some nasty ghost, swallowed my friend whole here, and then when you took your body back and transformed, you spat her out and then that said transformation turned her into a human and you dragged her here to save her from drowning?"

"Sounds about right." Sora replied, awkwardly. "I really thought eating seaweed and normal food would keep that side of me under control so I don't eat people and merpeople."

"...How long have you been doing that, if you don't mind me asking?" Kairi asked. To think that Sora's Naga-side reacted into eating her was the first time that Sora would eat a mermaid or a human was unusual as Nagas were well known for eating meat.

"...Two years." Sora reluctantedly replied. "I want to figure out how to be fully normal again."

"So you're cursed? And you avoid eating merpeople and people to avoid in being seen? No wonder things were quiet." Axel thought.

"It's a very long story. The only way to break the curse it-Oh!" Sora cut himself off as he remembered something. He immediately pulled his left glove off his hand and expected to see the scratch and scales. It wasn't there; it was gone. Did that mean the curse was broken? And if so, how and why did Kairi survive and become a human herself?

"...My scar...it's gone." Sora muttered, amazed. "Though...not how I wanted it to be."

Before Kairi and Axel could ask further, voices of Xion and Mickey calling out Sora's name caught the trio's attentions as they looked to see the said two along with Riku and Roxas whom they just met up approach, only to freeze when they caught sight of two other people and that Sora wasn't alone.

"Uh, oh." Mickey muttered, worriedly.

"Uh oh." Axel repeated, worriedly.

"Uuuuh...Sora?" Xion muttered, worriedly.

"Yeah, um...let's just say...we're busted." Sora replied, sheepishly.

Sora's friends approached as Roxas and Riku helped Sora stand up while Axel helped Kairi stand, though the former mermaid wobbled, shaking a little on her new legs as she wasn't used to standing.

"Easy, easy. It's not easy walking for the first time. Trust me, babies learnin' how to walk have a bit of diffculty at first all the time." Axel told her.

"Wait...you're..." Xion began, seeing Kairi for the first time and somehow managed to get the two and two together already. "You're the one who saved Sora from drowning the other day?"

"...He told you?" Kairi asked, blushing a little.

"Only the four of us and Goofy, since we're the only ones who...know about Sora's secret." Xion replied, smiling and walked closer to her. "He was also going all head over heels for you since then, and I've been wanting to meet you."

Mickey, Riku and Roxas on the other hand, blushed heavily when they saw the same problem Axel and Sora noticed earlier and the three of them covered their eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked, noticing their looks and it took Xion a second to realise what's wrong and groaned in realization.

"Um, first thing's first. We have to get you some clothes." Xion sheepishly suggested.

"Oh...oh! I-I didn't even think about that." Kairi blushed, finally realising what the problem was.

Axel shook his head, chuckling. "Yeah, that's another thing you gotta get used to, Kai'. If you wanna be a human, you gotta dress like one."

"Wait, wait. So...she's the Mermaid that Sora kept on talking out and now she's human? How did that happen?" Riku asked in disbelief.

"I thought she was a normal girl or that Sora was hallucinating." Roxas added.

"Uh, guys? Why don't we worry about that later and get her some clothes first?" Mickey suggested.

"Here, you can burrow my trench coat for a while." Axel offered, sliding his black coat off and wrapped it around Kairi's body and buttoned it up so that way at least the, eh, girly parts were covered and only the bottom of her legs were seen as she slid her arms though the too big sleeves.

Kairi smiled, "Thanks, Axel."

"So, you guys are friends?" Sora asked to the two redheads.

"We've been friends for two years. It's a long story. Actually, he's sort like an older brother to me, despite him having a twin himself." Kairi replied.

"Let's just say we've been secretly meeting every afternoon after work everyday. So, me, a bird, a fish and another mermaid only know about this." Axel admitted.

"Well, look at what the catfish dragged in!" Scuttle's voice echoed from around the corner, getting everyone else's attentions.

"Scuttle?" Kairi asked, wondering what the seagull had found if he hasn't noticed her and the others yet.

Axel groaned softly. "Speakin' of the bird..."

Wondering what was going on, the group decided to see what was going on and followed the direction of Scuttle's voice around the cliffs and onto the beach near the ship wreck and lagoon. What they saw surprised them, but more so to Kairi as she recongized not only Scuttle, but also Flounder, Sebastian, and Ariel. But something was different with her former fellow mermaid.

"Look at ya! Look at ya! There's something different. Don't tell me - I got it. It's your hairdo, right? You've been using the dinglehopper, right?" Scuttle asked, noticing that something was different, but unlike everyone else, he hasn't noticed the change in Ariel's bottom half.

"Dinglehopper?" Sora asked, dumbfounded and Mickey, Riku, Roxas and Xion shrugged while both Kairi and Axel facepalmed in exasperation.

"That's what he called a fork and thought it was used as a hairbrush that people use." Kairi sheepishly explained.

"And a holding pipe as an instrument." Axel chuckled, still finding those amusing and still Scuttle still didn't get it, even as Ariel bounced her new right leg to get her friend to understand while he babbled on, until Sebastian, who also facepalmed himself in irritation, finally lost his temper.

"SHE'S GOT LEGS, YOU IDIOT!" The red crab shouted, startling the bird who flew off and landed onto the rock next to him as he continued, "She traded her voice with the seawitch and got legs. Jeez, man..."

"I knew that." Scuttle said, dismissively.

"...Seawitch!?" Kairi, Sora, Xion, Axel, Mickey, Riku and Roxas exclaimed in shock and horror. Immediately, Kairi went over, despite wobbling a little as she cried out, "Ariel! You made a deal with Ursula!?"

Her cries got her other friends' attentions as they noticed and while Ariel was stunned and amazed to see her fellow former mermaid a human now too, though she could still talk at least, the other three were shocked as well.

"You too!? Wait a minute, you mean you didn't make a deal with Ursula? How did you get legs, girl?" Sebastian demanded.

"Well, um...it's a complicated story." Kairi replied. "I sort of had help..."

By then Sora and the others approached, and the other three yelped, but Mickey quickly said, "Don't be scared. We're not gonna hurt ya's. I promise."

"He's right. We're all friends. I'm Sora." Sora introduced, then realised he still hadn't introduced Kairi or Axel to his friends or even know their names or everyone else's either. "These are my best friends; Xion, Mickey, Riku and Roxas."

"Oh, I forgot. We haven't formally introduced." Kairi blushed again, "My name's Kairi. These are my friends; Axel, Ariel, Flounder, Scuttle and that's Sebastian."

"Got it memorized?" Axel added, tapping the side of his head.

"So um...you said something about Ursula making a deal with Ariel here?" Sora asked, and suddenly felt a bad feeling about this.

Flounder, still nervous with the humans, explained to Kairi and Scuttle, "Ariel's been turned into a human. She's gotta make the prince fall in love with her, and he's gotta ki- he's gotta kiss her." while Ariel tried to stand up on her legs while Kairi tried to help...but both former mermaids wobbled, which Sora noticed.

"And she's only got three days." Sebastian concluded.

"Whoa-whoa!" Sora cried out as he tried to help Kairi, only to accidently be pulled along with Axel who also tried to help into the water, and all four of them fell into the shallow water in a big splash and soaked those who were not habitable to the ocean wet. Everyone else's clothes were dripping wet and Scuttle's feathers made him look like a drowned cat with seaweed on his beak.

"Great. That means the main reason why Sora lost his mark is because of this and now it's got Kairi involved." Xion groaned.

"...Care to explain that?" Axel asked, after spitting the salt-water out of his mouth while his hair almost covered his face.

"As part of the curse, if anybody makes a deal with Ursula and only has three days to make it or whatever, Sora will be human without turning into a Naga during that time and once those days are up, unless he has true love's kiss, he'll be a Naga permamently." Mickey explained.

Sora helped Kairi stand while sighing, "I knew this was too good to be true."

"So...we both only have three days and then turn back to not being human?" Kairi asked, disappointingly.

"Well, you two seem to be liking each other a lot." Axel pointed out as he stood up. "I think this can work out."

Sora and Kairi both blushed and looked away slightly.

"I knew it! A human is cursed to be a Naga! And now look at both Ariel and Kairi! Just look at them!" Sebastian cried out in dismay. "On legs! On human legs!"

He then gasped and went into a hysterical breakdown, "My nerves are shot. This is a catastrophe! What would her father say?" then went to Flounder and continued, "I'll tell you what her father'd say, he'd say he's gonna kill himself a crab, that's what her father'd say!"

As Ariel stood up and this time was successful in not falling, she looked in shock as Sebastian began saying as he began to march back into the ocean, "I'm gonna march meself straight home right now and tell him just like I shoulda done de minute-" and she quickly scooped him up and had him sit in the palms of her hands.

"And don't you shake your head at me, young lady." Sebastian ordered when Ariel shook her head in denial. He then began thinking of how to reverse this to make things back to normal, "Maybe there's still time. If we could get that witch to give you back your voice, you could go home with all the normal fish, and just be...just be..."

The saddened look on Ariel's face, along with Kairi and Sora who both looked like they were about to cry as well and their friends shared sombered looks.

"Just be miserable with Kairi for the rest of your life..." Sebastian finished when he realised that by doing so would only crush Ariel's dreams and happiness. And Kairi's and Sora's.

"Gosh, that's not very fair." Mickey pouted.

"Everyone deserves to have their own lives. Even everyone in the ocean." Xion added.

"Yeah, c'mon. Have a heart, old crab." Axel pleaded, and Riku and Roxas nodded in agreement.

Shaking his head in dismay and in defeat, Sebastian sighed, "All right, all right. I'll try to help you find that prince." and Ariel's face immediately let up before she gave him a thankful kiss and both Sora and Kairi's face lit up as well happily, and their friends sighed in relief.

"Man. What a soft-shell I'm turning out to be." Sebastian muttered to himself after Ariel gently puts him back down.

"Now, Ariel. I'm tellin' ya. Kairi already looks the part, so if you wanna be a human the first thing you gotta do is dress like one." Scuttle began explaining, going over to an hold discarded shirt that was washed up. Which the boys finally realised that Ariel too only had her shell bra and blushed before looking away in embarrassment.

"What's wrong with them?" Flounder asked, puzzled along with her friends.

"It's not very nice for a boy to see a girl with no clothes on." Mickey awkwardly answered without turning around.

"I can help with at least styling Ariel." Xion offered, "Okay, let's see..."

* * *

 _Five minutes later..._

Ariel was now dressed in a makeshift ragged dress that stopped at her knees thanks to Xion's handy work and everyone has to admit, she did a good job considering the lack of clothes around here.

"Ta-da!" Xion proclaimed.

"Whoa!" Everyone else exclaimed.

Axel let out an impressed low whistle. "Hey, lookin' good."

"Well, Kairi looks amazing in the coat too." Sora pointed out.

"You think so?" Kairi blushed a little.

Scuttle whistled twice at Ariel's new stylish look which the latter liked. "Ya look great kid. Ya look - sensational."

Just then, they all heard barking from around the corner and when everyone looked in alarm, a sheep dog happily came running up. Scuttle flew away, Flounder screamed and dove back into the water, and Sebastian scurried up and hidden himself into Ariel's new pocket while she ran up to the rock, and Kairi backed up into Sora and Axel while the others looked in surprise, and the dog then happily gave Ariel a kiss on the cheek.

"It's okay. He's a dog." Sora ensured Kairi who relaxed a little.

"Yeah, but he sure gave me a bit of a fright." Axel sighed.

"What's the matter, Axel? Chicken?" Kairi teased, which made the others chuckle.

"Aw, come on. I already got that joke from Reno earlier." Axel whined.

"Max...Max." Another voice called out and everyone looked to see Eric calling and ruffled at the dog named Max who came up obediedly. "Quiet Max! What's gotten into you fella?" Eric asked, before noticing Ariel, while the others backed away to give the two some privacy, even though Axel immediately recongised the prince and bowed, as did the others when they caught on. "Oh. I see."

While Eric began talking to Ariel and apologized about Max startling her, at first he thought and correctly guessed that she was the one who had saved his life, when she tried to respond after being asked her name, she remembered to her and everyone else's disappointment that she traded her voice for legs.

"Oh no...Ariel can't talk or sing anymore." Kairi whispered in dismay.

"What's wrong? What is it?" Eric asked, concerned. When Ariel gestured at her throat, he asked, "You can't speak?" and she shook her head sadly to confirm it. "Oh. Then you couldn't be who I thought."

Max and Ariel both sighed in annoyance, as did Sora's group, Kairi and Axel. Then Ariel had an idea and tried to mimick what happened and how she lost her voice, though Eric couldn't understand it, and quickly caught her when she lost her balance and nearly fell.

"Whoa, whoa, careful - careful - easy." Eric muttered, and soon found they were in each other's arms. "You must have really been through something. Don't worry, I'll help you. Come on."

He made to help Ariel back to his castle when they both finally noticed the others who quickly flinched and chuckled nervously.

"They friends of yours?" Eric asked, and Ariel shrugged. "Well, um, you can all come too. You're soaking wet."

"Really? You sure it's okay?" Sora asked and Eric nodded, before noticing Axel and said, "Are you Axel that Grimsby asked to come over?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me, your highness. I uh...I found these kids ship wrecked so um...yeah, intended to help them out." Axel awkwardly replied.

"Don't worry. You're welcome to come along." Eric offered kindly and Ariel smiled.

The others shared a glance, and Sora was about to say something, when Mickey secretly shushed him, whispering firmly, "We can't let him know about your you-know-what." and Sora silently nodded in agreement.

So Eric, while helping Ariel get used to walking, lead everyone towards his castle as Sora and Axel helped Kairi get used to walking, looked back to Flounder and Scuttle, with the latter giving the two former mermaids a thumbs up for good luck.

* * *

Half an hour later, both Kairi and Ariel were in two seperate bubble baths getting cleaned up and were playing with bubbles. Xion was already cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothes, and was helping to clean up Kairi while a very nice maid named Carlotta was helping to clean up Ariel.

"Washed up from a shipwreck. Oh, you poor things." Carlotta said sympathetically. "We'll have you feeling better in no time."

"Thank you so much for helping us, ma'am." Xion said kindly.

"Yes, we really appreciate it." Kairi added warmly and comfortably.

"It was nothing, dears. Now then..." Carlotta replied, humming to herself as she approached Ariel's dress, with Sebastian still hiding in the pockets, and Axel's trench coat and when she picked them, she cringed before awkwardly told the girls, "I'll just...uh, I'll just get these washed for you."

Once Carlotta was out of the room briefly and out of earshot, Kairi looked up to Xion and asked softly, "This happen often?"

"Well...kind of. You get used to it after a while." Xion replied with a shrug.

* * *

Dressed in dry clothes and waiting for the girls as they were invited to spend some time in the castle, Sora, Axel, Mickey, Riku and Roxas were having their conversation while Grimsby and Eric were talking about a girl whom saved the latter's life.

"You think this will work out?" Roxas whispered.

"Hopefully." Axel shrugged. "I mean, I'm happy for Kairi and all and this does make it less awkward. She always wanted to see what our world was like."

"Can't blame her for that." Sora replied, and then sighed lovingly. "...She's great."

"Roxas...why is your face red?" Mickey asked when he and the others noticed that Roxas suddenly looked like in dream land himself, until Mickey's voice snapped him back to reality.

Blinking, the blonde-haired teen blinked, "M-my face was red?"

Both conversations came to a stop when Carlotta came and gently gestured all three women, all dressed up and cleaned up, into the dining room. Both Kairi and Ariel were in pink dresses while Kairi was in a light blue, blushing. Sora, Eric and even Roxas could only stare at the girls in amazement, while Mickey, Riku, Axel and Grimsby all smiled.

"Oh, Eric, isn't she a vision?" Grimsby smiled at Ariel.

"Uh...Y-you look wonderful." Eric complimented, and Ariel blushed slightly, nodding her thanks.

Axel smiled at Kairi as did Sora.

"Wow...Kairi...You...you look amazing." Sora complimented.

"...Thank you, Sora." Kairi replied happily.

"Nice dresses. You three look great." Axel complimented.

"Wow, I...Xion...you look...stunning." Roxas complimented, blushing.

Xion blushed herself, "Really? Thanks, Roxas."

"Come come come, you must be famished. Let me help you my dears." Grimsby kindly overed, and with the help of Sora and the other boys, the girls were seated at the table. Sora then sat next to Kairi's right, while Axel sat at her left with Roxas and Xion seated next to Ariel's left and Eric at her right. Mickey and Riku sat at Axel's left with Mickey in the middle and Riku next to Grimsby.

"It's - It's not often that we have such lovely dinner guests, eh Eric?" Grimsby asked after he took a seat, before he and Eric look a bit dumbfounded when Ariel began brushing her hair with the fork, and Kairi and Axel, both looking embarrassed, shook their heads and Sora's group looked awkard. Suddenly embarrassed herself, Ariel quickly put the fork down. She then noticed Grimsby's pipe and lit up again.

Which made the rest of the group who knew the secret try not to whince.

"Uh, do you like it? It is rather - fine..." Grimsby asked, handing Ariel the pipe, only for her to try and play music, and blew out the ashes right into his and Riku's faces which were covered up. This made Eric and everyone else laugh, before quickly collecting themselves and apologised, but still held smiles.

"Oh my!" Carlotta giggled, approaching the young prince. "Why, Eric, that's the first time I've seen you smile in weeks."

"Yeah, I guess we looked pretty funny." Riku admitted as he and Grimsby both wiped their faces with cloths.

"Oh, very amusing." Grimsby agreed.

As Carlotta revealed tonight's dinner, Sora and Kairi turned to gaze at each other and, for a moment, seem lost in each other's eyes. Both smiled and couldn't help it. They wanted to know each other, be together. Neither one felt so in love before until they met one another and despite Sora still feeling guilty for having swallowed her up before spitting her back out, he was glad that he managed to save her, and somehow had her turn into a human herself.

* * *

Meanwhile in the hallways, Goofy the lanky tallish dog, having been offered a second job as a waiter of the palace, was humming to himself as he made his way to the kitchen where chef Louis was making dinner...

Only to open the door at the wrong time where Louis was attacking Sebastian who, having accidently landed himself in the kitchen after escaping the washing, hidden himself in a cabinet. Louis, with a mallet in hand as yelling an insane battle scream just as Goofy stood in front...

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooowwwwww!" Louis hollared as he jumped and crashed into both the shelves...and Goofy.

"Uh-oh!" Goofy yelped, gulping and braced himself.

* * *

 _ **Crash!**_ And then, "YAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOOEEEEEEE!" A scream followed along with more crashes echoed into the dining room.

The guests, Eric and Grimsbly looked into the direction where it was coming from as Axel asked, puzzled, "What was that?"

Smiling nervously, Carlotta said awkwardly, "I think I'd better go see what Louis is up to." before dashing off to see what in the world was going on.

An awkward pause.

"Okay...?" Sora muttered, dumbfounded.

* * *

Goofy was catching every thrown object Louis was tossing in the latter's efforts to find Sebastian who'd seemed to have disappeared and Goofy stumbled and panickly tried to not drop anything.

"Come out you little pipsqueak and fight like a man!" Louis demanded, continuing his crazy search like a madman.

"LOUIS! GOOFY!"

Both Goofy and Louis jumped and while the former stumbled and had to re-catch everything he accidently flew into the air, the latter hit his head and had pots and pans fall off the shelf. Both of them looked to see a furious Carlotta standing in the opened doorway when she saw what was happening.

"What are you doing!?" Carlotta demanded angrily.

"He did it!" Goofy quickly pointed at the chef while gently putting everything down.

Louis, realizing he was in trouble, tried to make an excuse when he realized he couldn't and smiled sheepishly while putting out the small fire on his mustache. "I'm sorry, madame."

Fuming, Carlotta grabbed three plates with covers and stormed off, with Goofy quickly placing the other seven onto a tray trolly and wheeled it while nervously following the angry maid. He paused when he whispered to Louis, "Gawrsh, I've never seen ya' or a lady that mad." before hurrying away.

Louis sighed in relief, before muttering to himself while answering Goofy's question, "Unfortunately, I have."

* * *

Back in the dining room, everyone resumed the conversation...well, Ariel could only respond with body and facial language, but that seemed fine for now.

"You know, Eric, perhaps our young guests might enjoy seeing some of the sights of the kingdom. Something in the way of a tour?" Grimsby suggested, only for him to notice Eric wasn't paying attention. The younger man was gazing at Ariel with a smile, as their looks looked similiar to Sora and Kairi's.

Until Eric noticed the Grimsby had been talking and turned back to him, asking, "I'm sorry, Grim, what was that?"

Annoyed, Grimsby whispered while Carlotta served the two of them and Ariel their meals, to which she, and soon the others once Carlotta was out of sight again, saw that Sebastian had hidden himself under Grimsby's cover and gestured all eight of them to keep quiet.

Hurriedly, Ariel signaled Sebastian to her plate. While Grimsby and Eric weren't looking, the red living crab scurried over and hidden himself in her plate while the former mermaid quickly closed it and leaned onto it, pretending nothing happened and Sora's group, Kairi and Axel mentally sighed in relief.

"Well - whaddaya say? Would you like to join me on a tour of my kingdom tomorrow?" Eric asked Ariel who nodded excitedly. Of course she would like to join Eric on the tour. In fact, she loved that idea.

"I can give these guys a tour too, if that's okay." Axel volunteered.

"Sure." Eric nodded and Ariel nodded in agreement.

"That'd be wonderful." Kairi said happily, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Ay-hyuck! Heya, fellers. I didn't know you were here." Goofy's voice spoke up, and when seven of them looked up, Sora, Mickey, Riku, Roxas and Xion were surprised to see him as he served them their plates which had pasta bakes.

"Goofy?" Sora's group asked, surprised.

"Goofy! What're you doin' here?" Mickey asked.

"I just got myself another job as a waiter here. I also got me a job to work with Donald to deliver eggs." Goofy replied. He then asked in a whisper, "But uh, how 'bout you fellers?"

"It's a long story." Sora sheepishly replied.

Confused, Goofy just shrugged and waved the group a goodbye while saying gentlemen like, or as gentlemen like as possible, "Bom am pa teete!" which had everyone else chuckle at his little mistake due to him trying to say, "Bon Appetit".

"Wonderful. Now let's eat before this crab runs off my plate." Grimsby happily said, only to hit his fork on his plate and when he looked, he realized that his crab wasn't there and was lost for words.

* * *

Later that night, and for once Sora had no need to head to the beach and turn into a Naga, everyone was ready for bed. Sora shared a room with his friends while Kairi and Axel shared another, and Ariel had her own with Sebastian with her.

He was just heading there when Kairi came back in her new pjs. The two of them noticed each other and smiled warmly, blushing a little and couldn't help but gaze at each other in the eyes once more.

Until they realised they looked silly and blushed in embarrassment.

"Oh, um...Night, Kairi." Sora said.

"Goodnight, Sora." Kairi replied, smiling warmly and headed into her and Axel's room.

Sora smiled, before heading into his room where the others were still awake and were waiting for him.

"Okay, so you only have two days left. How are you gonna approach Kairi without making a fool of yourself?" Riku asked, firmly.

"Dunno. I don't want to rush it, but it's like you said, I've only got two days left. I'm not sure how to do it right." Sora admitted as he layed down in his bed.

Xion and the others thought hard, until she said, "Well, there's nothing more romantic then a boat ride at the lagoon. And I think Eric and Ariel are gonna do that tomorrow night too."

"You sure Kairi will like that?" Sora asked, uncertainly.

"Oh, don't worry, Sora. Of course she'll love it. What kinda girl wouldn't want a nice quiet evening, under the early night sky, surrounded by fireflies?" Mickey said optimistically.

"Hope you're right. I still feel terrible for what happened earlier." Sora said, sighing.

Xion sighed, before approaching Sora and playfully ruffled his hair, which annoyed him yet comforted him at the same time. "It'll work out, Sora. I just know it."

Sora hoped his friends were right, and Roxas looked the most sympathic, secretly gazing at Xion's back.

Since he was in love with her.

* * *

At the same time in Kairi and Axel's room, they were discussing the similiar conversation.

"Two days left and it's kinda goin' fast. So, how're you gonna approach Sora?" Axel asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed to his chest.

"I'm not sure. I don't want to act all silly. I'm not sure how to do it right." Kairi admitted, only to blink in surprise when she realised how soft and extremely comfy the bed was. Smilng, she layed fully on it and made herself more comfortable.

Axel sighed, "Well, the closest thing I can think of is a boat ride on the lagoon outside of town. But I'm not sure, because one, I'm not a romantic expert, and two, it might make you think of the ocean. Sure Sora's a nice kid and I actually really like him, and Roxas and Xion, Riku and Mickey and that funny guy Goofy...I'm just worried about the whole Naga thing. I mean, seriously, no offence but you did end up swallowed whole and frankly, I'm too scared to even ask what the stomach was like."

When he didn't get a response, Axel looked up and saw that Kairi had fallen asleep. The young man smiled and silently went over, blowing out the candle and covered his friend up to her shoulders under the quilt, caressing her fringe from her face.

"Night, Kai'. Sleep tight." Axel whispered, settling himself on the floor and leaned against the side of the bed. "Ya' know, I really do hope you and Sora do end up together. As people. It'd be the best thing that'll happen to you."

Plus if Kairi remained human, Axel can see her all the time he wanted without having to worry about the risk of her getting seen as a mermaid by anyone else.

* * *

The next morning, Carlotta and Grimsby waved Eric, Ariel, Sora, Kairi, Xion, Axel, Riku, Roxas, Mickey and even Goofy off as they travelled in seperate carriages into town, with both Ariel and Kairi being amazed by the surroundings of the human world.

Flounder was following them in the river made in town, jumping up and down to get Sebastian's attention as he had hidden himself in Ariel's pockets.

"Are they kissing yet?" Flounder asked, eagerly.

"Not yet!" Sebastian whispered back, much to Flounder's annoyance and disappointment.

A little later in the Town Square, the group toured around as Kairi and Ariel looked in interest and Kairi had to giggle when Ariel saw a little puppet show before they and the others went to a little dance area. Sora offered Kairi for a dance in a gentlemen manner and she accepted, and then they, Ariel and Eric, and even an eager Xion and Roxas danced while Mickey, Riku, Goofy and Axel watched them, smiling.

"Gawrsh, they look kinda happy together, don't they?" Goofy thought.

"They sure do, Goof'." Mickey agreed.

They then went for a little shopping and Kairi now wore a pink modern dress with purple shoes while Xion, Sora, Roxas, Axel and Mickey had their clothes from yesterday cleaned and dried. After that they, Ariel and Eric left in the carriages on the way out of the kingdom, while Scuttle landed on a porch and found Flounder in the river.

"Yo, Flounder! Any kissing?" He asked.

"No. Not yet." Flounder replied dully.

"Hmmm...Well they-they better get crackin'." Scuttle cried out in exasperation.

* * *

Later in the early evening, wanting to give the two couples some time alone, Xion, Axel, Roxas, Riku, Mickey and Goofy watched with Flounder and Scuttle while Sora and Kairi were in one rowboat with Sora rowing, and Eric and Ariel in another with Eric rowing, both boats going in opposite directions.

"Move over! Move your big feathers. I can't see a thing." Flounder told Scuttle.

"Gawrsh, nothin's happenin'." Goofy grumbled sadly.

"Aw, gee. Tomorrow's the last day and not once they even puckered up." Mickey groaned in dismay.

"Geez, just kiss already for cryin' out loud." Axel groaned impatiently.

Xion sighed, "Maybe they need a bit of a more romantic setting."

That was when Scuttle came to an idea, which would be considered a bad idea. "All right, this calls for a little vocal romantic stimulation."

He flew up into a tree branch over the water where he knew the two boats would sail under, saying to the four little birds that were humming happily at the two cute couples, "Stand back." and inadvertedly scared them off.

Clearing his throat, Scuttle then began to squawk a song...which was pretty awful. " **La** _ **aaa**_ **aa** _**la**_ **la** _ **la**_ **la** _ **la**_ **la** _ **la**_!"

"Wow. Somebody should find that poor animal and put it out of its misery." Eric joked, and Ariel faked a smile before she, and both Sora and Kairi looked up to see Scuttle who winked at them and gave them the OK sign, while still singing terribly, " **La la la la** _ **la**_ **a** _ **a**_ **a** _ **a**_ **a** _ **! La,**_ **la** _ **, la la la**_ **la** _ **!**_ "

Which only had all three of them facepalm themselves in embarrassment at his terrible singing.

Everyone else agreed, because the group on the shore covered their ears with their hands and groaned, cringing at the horrible sound, while on Eric and Ariel's boat, Sebastian did the same.

"Vocal romantic stimulation? More like Vocal ear-breaking stimulation." Riku deadpanned.

"I swear, my ears are starting to ring." Axel grumbled as he and the others silently moved along the land to follow their friends and away from Scuttle's terrible squawking the seagull called 'singing'.

Fortunately, Sebastian had a much better idea and had the lagoon's locals to sing a rather very nice, more romantic and MUCH better song which went the mood, a song about 'kiss the girl' which sounded quirky to Axel, but hey, whatever works. Plus everyone else seemed to like it and he liked it better than Scuttle's awful squawking.

Alone to themselves on the boat and not loud enough for Eric and Ariel to hear, Sora began, "You know, I...I still feel terrible for what I did to you the other day. I'm really sorry, Kairi. I never wanted to hurt you and I still don't."

Kairi smiled and shook her head, "I have to admit, I was scared when your Naga-side had you swallow me whole, but you got me out and saved me from drowning. The first time I saw you return to human form, I knew I couldn't let you drown. Because you're good in your heart, Sora."

She then sighed and added, "And I had a feeling that you accidently swallowed me when you regained control before you would chew me up."

"You knew?" Sora asked, shocked and feeling more guilty.

The former mermaid nodded, before taking hold of Sora's hand and said, "I'm not angry, Sora. More than anything, I wanted to help you return to a full human, because for the first time in two years and in my life, I felt I belonged somewhere."

"Really?" Sora asked, surprised and when she nodded, he smiled softly and gently placed a hand onto her own, the two holding hands with each other. "Thanks, Kairi. If there's anything you want me to do, all you gotta do is ask. I'll do my best to protect you. I promise."

Both boats unaware of each other's pressence at the moment, the two couples floated under a willow tree which was much more romantic and went for a slow spin so that neither Sora, Kairi, Eric or Ariel would get dizzy. Mickey and the others watched on and silently encouraged and supported them to kiss. Scuttle then appeared in front of the group while trying to squawk along Sebastian's song, only for both Mickey and Goofy to grab his beak to shut him up without interruptions.

Sora kept on staring at the beautiful mermaid in human form as though he was seeing a perfect angel from heaven and Kairi was doing the same with a smile on her face, and both Eric and Ariel were doing the same with each other. All around them as the song was coming to an end, both couples began to bring their faces closer to one another, and closer, and closer, and closer, while all of the animals and both Sora's and Kairi's friends were encouraging them, and Sebastian was shaking Scuttle by the neck while making the latter comically dizzy.

Both couples lips were about to touch in both boats and their eyes had closed...when the moment was ruined and both boats capsized and sending the startled four overboard, much to everyone else's dismay.

As both Sora and Eric helped Kairi and Ariel out of the water, Riku, Axel and Sebastian all facepalmed in dismay.

"Aw nuts!" Mickey grumbled in irritation.

"Man! So close, too!" Roxas groaned.

"That is so unfair!" Xion moaned.

Mickey sighed, before blinking in confusion as he caught the sight of not one, but three somethings dive underwater; two eels who were clasping each other's tails shaking them like hands while congratulating each other, and something large like a giant's head sinking while it snickered before swimming away when Demyx, who had been the one to capsize Sora and Kairi's boat, realised he was spotted and quickly made his escape, and Flotsam and Jetsam who'd been the ones to capsize Eric and Ariel's boat also escaped.

The mouse frowned and gulped nervously. He could've sworn he'd just seen a giant head...and if he'd seen a giant head, then it belonged to the one thing everyone feared the most.

A Naga.

* * *

" _Mission Accomplished, Mar'!_ " Demyx reported in Marluxia's mind while the pink-haired Naga witnessed everything going on through his magic orb. " _Can I eat that little mouse I saw earlier now?_ " He asked, hopefully.

"Not yet. Not until I say so. Keep yourself out of their sight." Marluxia ordered and ignored his servant's whining and instead focused on Sora and the others. "That was too close for my taste. Too close! That fool! Ugh, those two mermaids are better than I thought. At this rate, they'll be kissing by sunset no doubt!"

He sighed explosively before switching over to what Ursula was doing and made to so that he could hear what she was saying and when Marluxia noticed she was going through her recipes for her spells, he smiled wickedly.

" _Triton's daughter and that other mermaid will be mine - and then I'll make him and the girl's friends writhe. I'll see them wriggle like a bunch of worms on hooks!_ " Ursula declared, using the spell to transform herself into a human.

While Marluxia suddenly admired Ursula's plot and felt that perhaps her interference will work to his advantage, he muttered to himself to her despite knowing she wouldn't hear, "Not if I have that mermaid as my servant's meal. Or perhaps to get him to obey me, I will threaten her life and have him make his decison; his freedom, or her safety."

"Demyx! Meet me at shore tomorrow afternoon. We may have our key to our success." Marluxia ordered, grinning evilly.

* * *

Later that night, almost everyone has gone to sleep. Xion on the other hand, found she couldn't sleep. So she silently went to the garden outside and gazed out to sea, deep in thought. Sora and Kairi had been so close today, and so had Ariel and Eric, and then suddenly the boats somehow capsized to ruin their chance in setting things right and making a new future.

She felt bad for them. More importantly, it was mixing up her own feelings for a certain boy whom she shared a dance with today. All of Xion's efforts in helping Sora to find true love, she ended up falling for Roxas during that time.

"Maybe I wasn't much help after all." She muttered sadly to herself.

"I know that feeling." Axel's voice spoke.

Startled, the teenager turned to see him standing there.

"How long have you...?" Xion asked.

"Not long, but I couldn't sleep." Axel shrugged as he approached and stood next to her. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you're having the same problem."

The black-haired girl sighed, looking over the ocean once more. "You guessed right." She said, before asking, "Axel? Did the terrible things that happened two years ago meant to be a curse of cruelty to Sora and Kairi?"

"Why do you say that?" The redhaired man asked.

"I don't know. Sora and Kairi did nothing wrong, and all of the sudden this happened. Do you think it's because they're meant to have their lives ruined and everyone else got caught up in this?" Xion muttered.

The redhead shrugged, "I think you're overestimating life, Xi'. No one can look into the future, but the past can't be changed either. Sometimes things happen for reason and somethings they don't. But I seriously doubt Sora and Kairi both had their lives in a bad way because of karma or a curse. If ya' ask me, it was bad timing for both of them, and the ones to really be blamed for are the Seawitch and the giant carnivore snake-people."

"Guess you're right." Xion nodded. "...Sora, Riku, Roxas, Mickey, Goofy and I grew up together, you know. And when Sora was cursed, I tried my hardest to help him find true love...but now...now I got feelings for...for Roxas." She admitted with a dark blush.

Axel was admittedly surprised, before sighing and admitted, "When I first saw Kairi for the first time, I was so shocked and amazed I couldn't think straight. She'd been travelling all on her own because no one believed it was Ursula that had killed her parents. They insisted that it was either humans or Nagas that done it and she'd been made an outcast because of it. I wanted to tell people that I saw a mermaid, but when I saw her crying, and I got up to her and asked what's wrong, she told me what happened and it broke my heart."

Pausing, he then continued, "So when I comforted her, I decided it was better off that I was the only one who knew, because I couldn't bear in her life being any worse than it already was. Since then, Kairi and I became close friends and we would see each other in secret. I guess I became sorta like an older brother to her."

"That's so sweet of you, Axel. No wonder you two are so close." Xion smiled, which made Axel blush in slight embarrassment.

"Yeah, well. It ain't easy, especially since she's growin' up and fell in love, even though she almost died twice. Don't get me, I like Sora and I trust him, and seriously hope he and Kairi stay human forever. I'm just...scared to think what would happen if he turned into a Naga full-time." Axel replied.

Xion knew what Axel was talking about. "We're all worried. I hope it won't be too late for them or Ariel."

"Same here."

The two of them continued to gaze at the horizon, fully unaware that Eric was nearby, and was fallen under the spell of a disguised Ursula who walked along the beach, using Ariel's voice in the shell she wore.

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter will be the last chapter of this story. Sadly I won't be able to write or update for the next couple of days, but I will update it without a doubt and finish this before I move on to update one or a few of my other stories.**

 **See you then!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Ultimate Fates

**Author's Note: Here's the final chapter! I know I was supposed to be busy for today and tomorrow, but those plans got cancelled, so I had the time to write and post this. Please enjoy the conclusion of this tale!**

 **I own nothing here.**

* * *

Chapter 3: The Ultimate Fates.

The next morning, Scuttle was flying in the air excitedly and made it into the opened window of Sora's room where he, Xion who'd finally gone to bed, Mickey, Riku and Roxas slept, exclaiming happily, "Hey, fellas! Wake up! You gotta hear this with Kairi and Axel! I'm gonna go wake them up!" before flying off.

Rudely awoken, Sora's group groggily sat up and wondered what Scuttle meant, though they did caught on something about Kairi and Axel, so, still half-asleep, the five of them decided to see what the fuss was about.

In Kairi and Axel's room, Scuttle flew into their window, happily crying out, "Kairi! Kairi, wake up! Wake up! I just told Ariel the news! It's gonna be great, kiddo! We did it!" and like Sora's group, Kairi and Axel, rudely awoken, groggily sat up and were half-asleep themselves.

"What's the bird talkin' about?" Axel yawned, then layed his head back onto the mattress, intending on going back to sleep, even as the still sleepy group of Sora and his friends walked through, yawning themselves.

"Right, like Ariel and the crab, you guys wouldn't know either, huh? The whole town's buzzin' about the prince gettin' himself hitched this afternoon!" Scuttle declared excitedly, and when the group just stared at him blankly, he shrugged, explaining. "You know, he and Ariel are getting married."

"Wait, what?" Riku asked, blinking.

Scuttle didn't reply, instead he gave a surprised Axel a noggin on the head, "Ya silly pyro-head! I just wanted to tell ya so you wouldn't miss. I'll catch you later, I wouldn't miss it either!" He said before flying off.

It took the group a moment to try and process this new information, before they all realised what Scuttle said and suddenly were fully awake and surprised. Eric had asked Ariel to marry him! He really must love her!

"Ariel's getting married...! She's getting married!" Kairi cheered happily, leaping out of her bed and hugged Sora who mirrored her excitement, the two of them laughing and hugging each other. "We have to go see it! This is the big chance!"

"I know, right? I knew Ariel would pull through! This is just so awesome!" Sora cheered happily. "We should get ready! I wouldn't wanna miss this!"

"Oh boy! Looks like things are really workin' out after all!" Mickey said happily.

"That's...unexpected." Riku muttered, still trying to absord all this.

"What about you guys?" Roxas asked Sora and Kairi who stopped and realising what their friend just said, blushed before and shared a sheepish look.

"Well, um..." Sora began, and while he wanted desperately to proclaim his love to Kairi, and kiss her, and they both do have until sunset tonight, he still felt uncertain and while he didn't know it, Kairi was uncertain despite wanting to proclaim her love and kiss him as well.

"Well, there's nothing more romantic than seeing someone else's wedding. Plus the bride gets to throw the flowers and whoever catches it is next to be married." Xion suggested. "You both can, you know, do that there."

Axel sat up and shrugged, "She has a point. Though not to be a pessimest here, but I think the seagull's made another mistake."

"Whaddya' mean?" Mickey asked, confused.

"I just...got a bad feeling that the news is not all it's cracked up to be." The redhead reluctantedly replied. "Maybe we should ask Ariel and Sebastian to double check."

Realizing that he had a point, the group exited the room and made to find Ariel downstairs only to spot her and Sebastian hiding being a pillar, gazing down below. Judging her shocked expression and the voices of Grimsby and Eric, they hidden themselves next to her and saw both men on the main floor, with some girl holding arms with the Prince, named Vanessa.

"...We wish to be married as soon as possible." Eric said, in a monotone voice, which had Ariel mouth 'no' while Kairi and Xion softly gasped in horror and Sora, Axel, Mickey, Roxas, Axel and Sebastian's eyes widened in pure shock as all of their hearts quickly sank.

"Oh, yes - of course, Eric, but, er - but these things do take time, you know." Grimsby tried to explain.

"This afternoon, Grimsby. The wedding ship departs at sunset." Eric cut him off.

"Oh, oh - very well, Eric - as you wish." Grimsby reluctantedly replied.

Unable to bear it any longer, Ariel ran off, crying.

"Ariel, wait!" Kairi whispered a cry, quickly chasing after her with Xion following. Sora could only look on in horror and dismay.

"No way...How could Eric see the wrong girl for Ariel?" He shook his head, not wanting to believe it himself. Still, he and the others realized that Axel had been right; Scuttle had made yet another mistake and their excitement of things finally looking up were quickly crushed.

"I hate it when I'm right." Axel grunted, wanting to punch something hard in frustration. Still, as he eyed Vanessa, he gasped softly when he saw her gaze up at him and the others, and appeared to have watched Ariel run off in tears, and Kairi and Xion following her before the mysterious woman looked back to Eric.

The redhaired man's eyes furrowed. Something was suddenly very wrong and suspicious about that girl. Still, there was nothing that could be done now.

Ariel's heart had been broken.

* * *

Later that afternoon, after Sebastian found Flounder and told him the bad news, they, Ariel, Sora, Kairi and their other friends reached the docks and were too late as the wedding boat was sailing away into the sea. Scuttle didn't come by due to him being too busy thinking that Eric was going to marry Ariel. Ariel just slid down on a pillar, folding her arms around her legs and sobbed without her voice. Everyone else around her looked on in heartbreaking sympathy.

Seeing her like this broke their hearts, but none more so than Sora and Kairi who, due to the unfairness of breaking Sora's curse if Ariel couldn't have her happiness, agreed that neither could they. Despite their friends' objections, Kairi ultimately decided that she should at least keep Ariel company under Ursula's slavement for eternity while Sora to leave as a Naga for a more isolated area where he would live alone. Seeing Ariel cry though made Kairi cry in Sora's arms, and even Sora himself softly cried. All three of them shed tears which fell into the water, and even Xion, Mickey, Flounder and Axel silently shed their own tears due to the fact that they would be losing three of their best friends.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Town Square near the beach, Goofy was humming to himself in a cheerful mood and like Scuttle, he didn't realize that the news about Eric marrying Ariel was false.

So happily in his thoughts as he made his way to collect and deliver Eggs and had to miss the wedding, Goofy didn't look where he was going and accidently slipped on a flat tyre of a broken down car and yelped as he clumsily tried and failed to regain his balance. He slipped forward and crashed into both Reno who cried out as he and Rude had been trying to fix the car, and a young duck mechanic named Donald who squawked in alarm, leaving all three of them in a pile while Rude, Cloud, Zack, Tifa and Cissnei smirked and giggled.

"Ow! Hey, watch where you're goin', Goof'!" Reno grunted, immediately recongising the Egg-Delivery Boy who also works at the Burger Joint and just recently, as a waiter at the Castle. How this clumsy guy got three jobs, the redhead had no idea.

"Sorry. Guess I was thinkin' of the wedding." Goofy sheepishly replied, standing up along with Reno and the very annoyed Donald who glared at him.

"What's the big idea, ya' big Palooka?" Donald demanded.

"Why were you thinking about the wedding if you didn't even get invited?" Cloud asked, skeptically.

Goofy shrugged, "Gee, that's a good question. Everybody else in the castle got invited except me."

"Maybe it's because you're too clumsy that ya' might ruin the whole thing." Reno dryly suggested. "Not that it'll make much of a difference. Whatever Axel did musta-"

"So we're really gonna make Sora our new Naga-buddy today?" An unfamiliar voice exclaimed from a small distance that inadvertedly cut Reno off, followed by a loud 'Shush'.

"Who said that?" Zack asked, blinking and quickly concerned.

"Don't look at me." Reno shrugged.

"Not me." Donald shrugged as well.

"Didn't it say something about 'Naga'?" Tifa asked, worriedly.

"Let's take a look." Cloud suggested.

Despite the sudden nervousness, the group followed where the voices were coming from as another unfamiliar voice whispered loudly, "Keep it down, you moron! Even though the town is empty due to the false wedding, Sora's group may be lingering and unless you want our plan to be foiled, just, shut, up!"

Goofy and the others carefully peeked behind a building and a bunch of trees and their eyes widened in shock and disbelief, not to mention horror as both Marluxia and Demyx were having a secret meeting to discuss the plan to their ultimate success.

"Precisely. As long as that mermaid's friend does not kiss the Prince and that he marries the Seawitch, we will be able to control Sora and gain dominant control over the world. It will be difficult to confront Ursula once she gets Triton's Trident and rules the Ocean, but she will be no match for us. Soon, Sora, his friends and the world will be ours!" Marluxia answered Demyx's previous question.

"Guess it's kinda a good thing that Sora doesn't realise that the only to really break the spell is true love's kiss. Which, by the way, I'm still sore about when you lied to me about that." Demyx shrugged.

The pink haired Naga chuckled, "Ah, but I also added another twist; Even if Sora and Kairi kiss, they still aqquire the little mermaid's true love's kiss to become a human permamently. None the less, every living creature in the world will be our full coursed meals!"

"So can I really see if those animal-guys are tasty too, starting with that mouse?" Demyx asked excitedly.

Marluxia rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Yes, you get to eat that mouse too."

They heard enough. Goofy's group, horrified on what they'd just seen, heard and learned, they silently hurried back so that they wouldn't end up caught, though they were still horrified on what they learned and only Goofy knew the full truth due to him being one of the few knowing Sora's secret.

"Now do ya' believe that Nagas are real?" Reno asked Cissnei, shaking in fear.

"Yes, I'm definitely a believer now." Cissnei nodded, terrified.

"So the legend is true." Cloud muttered, shocked and horrified. "The curse of the Nagas. But...who's Sora?"

"You don't think...the wedding that's happening today is the one they were talking about, do you?" Tifa asked, worriedly.

"Well, I haven't heard of any other weddings." Rude pointed out.

"And not only that, they're gonna eat us!" Donald cried out hysterically, only for Reno and Zack to clamp his bill shut to keep him quiet.

"Gawrsh! Marluxia and the Seawitch! What'd I do? What'd I do!?" Goofy cried out hysterically while inadvertedly blurting it out. He then had an idea and cried out, still panicking, "They're gonna-I gotta-!" and without answering the others who looked at him in confusion, he quickly dashed off, leaving behind a trail of dust.

"Goofy! Where're you going!? Come back!" Zack cried out, though he was too late as Goofy sped off like a jet engine.

"Let's follow and see where he's goin'! Then we need to warn everyone else about the danger!" Reno declared. No one argued with that, and took off running.

* * *

Sora, Kairi and their friends were sitting on the platform, saddened as they waited for the ultimate final fate, when they heard a familiar voice call out, sounding urgent and worried this time.

"Ariel! Kairi! Sora!" Scuttle cried out, flying towards them before landing next to Ariel who slowly stopped crying and she and everyone looked to see he finally arrived.

"Fellas!" Scuttle panted, then explained what he'd just seen and learned a short time ago. "I was flying, I wa - of course I was flying - An' - I s- I saw that the watch - the witch was watchin' a mirror, and she was singin' with a stolen set o' pipes!" while gesturing everything he'd seen.

When they were too slow to understand, Scuttle grabbed Sebastian, yelling urgently, "Do you hear what I'm tellin' you?" and began to slam the crab onto the wood while yelling, "THE PRINCE IS MARRYING THE SEA WITCH IN DISGUISE!"

"What!?" Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Axel, Xion, Roxas and Riku exclaimed in shock, while Ariel held a shocked expression.

"...I knew it! I knew something wasn't right with that girl we saw earlier! It was Ursula!" Axel grunted in realization and began hitting himself on the forehead with his fist. "Dang it! Why didn't I stop her when I had the chance!? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

"Axel, calm down!" Mickey cried out as he and Roxas grabbed hold of the redhead's shoulders and began shaking him to get him to stop. "You're only hurtin' yourself!"

"NAGAS!" Goofy's scream hollared, causing everyone to look to see him come running and screaming in a panic. "MICKEY! SORA! KAIRI! NAGAS! MARLUXIA'S HERE!" Only to slip and fall into the water, screaming, "YAA-HOO-HOOEEE!"

As soon as Riku and Sora pulled Goofy out of the water and onto the pier, he panted before explaining hysterically, "You're not gonna believe what I saw and heard! Marluxia and another Naga-they-they were talkin' about the weddin', a-and that the Sea-witch is marryin' the prince in disguise, and tha-that Marluxia lied to Sora about the curse! The only way is for Sora and Kairi and Ariel and the Prince to kiss to break the spell before Sunset or Sora'll turn into a Naga forever and that eatin' people and mermaids only make the chances of stayin' a Naga worse or better!"

He then grabbed Riku's shoulders and shook him heard while screaming, "They wannna have Sora turn Naga-forever to take over the world and eat everybody includin' all of us! And there's one Naga who wants to eat Mickey!"

A horrified tensed pause.

"A Naga wants to eat me?" Mickey asked, pointing at himself in pure shock and horror. Sure he knew that Naga's were notorious for eating humans and merpeople, but eating his own own and others, that was unheard of. Apparently the Naga that wasn't Marluxia intended on giving it a try, starting by taste-testing Mickey himself.

"...Marluxia lied? And he wants me to become a Naga to rule the world?" Sora asked, horrified beyond belief. He couldn't believe it; Marluxia was counting on him eating either people or merpeople to remain a Naga in case he failed to find true love! On top of that, that evil Naga was counting on Ursula to make sure Ariel wouldn't stay human forever!

Everyone else were just as shocked and horrified, except Sebastian who rubbed his sore head, asking both Scuttle and Goofy, "Are you both sure about this?"

"Have we ever been wrong?" Scuttle asked, panicking. "I mean, when it was important!?"

"What are we gonna do!?" Flounder cried out, worriedly.

Realizing that both Marluxia and Ursula had plotted the schemes the entire time by using Sora himself and Ariel, Sora stood up with determination, "For one thing, we can't let Marluxia and Ursula win! I'm not going to let it happen!"

"We have to crash that wedding!" Kairi agreed, standing up with equal determination and Ariel stood up in full agreement, as she remembered Ursula's words of the kiss before the sunset of the third day.

"My boat's right here! We can get there faster than a rowboat." Axel informed, agreeing that the wedding has to be stopped. The redhead hurried to retrieve it which was a small speed boat and powered it own. He slowed it down next to the others. "Hop on, guys!"

Seeing that Axel was right, Sora, Kairi, Ariel, Xion, Riku, Roxas and Mickey hopped in, before Kairi told Flounder, "C'mon, Flounder! We might need your help incase Axel's boat battery runs flat as fast as our fins can carry us!"

"I'll try!" Flounder nodded before he followed the boat when Axel drove it towards the Wedding boat.

"But what about the Naga-"

"Goofy! You warn everybody else and call the authorites to slow the Nagas down!" Mickey cut Goofy off before he vanished.

"Slow the Nagas down!...Uh, um...I know!" Goofy snapped his fingers as an idea hit him, before he raced off to find Cloud and the others since they too saw Marluxia and Demyx.

"I've gotta get to the sea king. He must know about this." Sebastian said to himself, knowing that Triton was the only one who could set this right.

Feeling left out and panicking, Scuttle asked, "What - What about me? What about ME?"

"You-find a way to STALL THAT WEDDING!" Sebastian ordered before diving to return to Atlantica.

"Stall the wedding?" Scuttle asked, rambling before he had an idea, "That's it!" and squawked as he flew off to find help from the local wildlife.

Goofy in the meantime ran until he nearly crashed into Reno and the others for the second time, but didn't stop as he unexpectedly grabbed Donald and continued on while calling out, "We gotta call for help to stop the Nagas! It's an emergancy!"

"Wh-what?" Reno asked, confused until he and the others realized that the Kingdom was in danger if the Nagas were not stopped. So the group nodded and followed Cloud's lead to follow Goofy and Donald-who was demanding to be put down-to find help.

* * *

Fully unaware of Goofy and Scuttle informing their friends of the plots, Marluxia and Demyx were resurfacing after hiding underwater and watched from the distance of the other side of the boat in glee and smirks, and in Demyx's case, his mouth watered as the very thought of eating Mickey Mouse excited him.

Only that the mullet-haired Naga heard something from the distance behind him and Marluxia. When then youngest Naga looked, his eyes widened as several cannon-ships, both modern military and medival royal navy, along with jet planes with guns were coming into view. There was also a helicopter which Reno commandeered, with the redhead himself in the pilot's seat, Rude in the co-pilot's seat, and Cloud, Tifa, Zack, Cissnei, Goofy and a very nauseous Donald riding in the back.

"Uh...oh..." Demyx muttered, worriedly. Realizing this was trouble, he tapped Marluxia's shoulder to get his attention. "Uh, Marluxia?"

"Shhh. Our moment of triumpth is coming ever so closer." Marluxia said, distractedly.

"But Marluxia...!" Demyx shook him this time, his voice getting higher and higher in fear as the calvary was getting closer and closer to attack.

"What!?" Marluxia growled, glaring at him. Only when the younger Naga scaredly pointed a shaky finger at what was seeing, by the time the pink-haired Naga looked, it was already too late as, at the signal from the captain on one of the ships, and by radio contact, all of the vessels fired their cannons, guns and missiles at the two of them who cried out and were hit and tried to knock away most.

While Marluxia knocked away from and almost hit Reno's chopper when the redhead managed to steer it away from the backfire, and the giant Naga made to crush one of the military ships, he was struck by more cannon fire which made him roar in pain and anger, Demyx tried and failed to knock away the open fire and instead had to try to clumsily dodge the attacks.

"Ow! Ow! Ow ow ow!" Demyx yelped girlishly, when he was attacked by the gunshots from Reno's helicopter when he found the button to open-fire.

"That's for wanting to try and eat my buddy Mickey, ya' big bully of a giant snake!" Goofy shouted angrily at Demyx through a megaphone while he held onto the side of the chopper before Tifa and Cissnei pulled him back in so that he wouldn't fall and get himself killed.

* * *

While the attack on the two giant evil Nagas went on-which no one on the boat was even noticing, there was chaos on the Wedding boat as Scuttle's rally of animals and fish barged in, dive-bombing at Ursula twice, first time they missed, but the second time they zoomed under her dress and she screamed in alarm in Ariel's voice. Max was barking excitedly while the guests ran around all over the deck in panic. Thankfully, the animals and sea-life focused on 'Vanessa' who was pinched on the nose by a lobster's claw, covered in star fish, thrown water at, bounced around on Seals like a beach ball, thrown into the wedding cake and spluttered in more water by a trio of Dolphins.

All this was happening just as Sora, Kairi and their group made it and were climbing up the side of the boat and climbed onto the deck, except for Flounder who dove back into the ocean. Scuttle finally flew up to Ursula and squawked loudly right in her face.

"Oh, why you little-!" Ursula growled and began strangling Scuttle who then tried to pull the seashell necklace off the sea-witch's neck. Fortunately, Max broke free from his leash and, seeing that all of the animals were helping, he decided to help and bit hard on the witch's, er, butt which made her scream in pain and made her lose her battle, letting Scuttle go and the necklace went flying in the air and crashed in front of Ariel, shattering into pieces.

Golden smoke came floating towards and around Ariel as her voice, now freed, echoed her singing while everyone watched on, and the spell over Eric was broken. Dazed, confused and feeling like he had a headache and hearing Ariel's voice, he and everyone saw what was happening. At least, the magic went into Ariel's throat and she sang to finish the song, her voice back where it belonged.

"Ariel?" Eric asked, amazed.

"Eric!" Ariel, now having her voice back, cried out happily, and Max happily ran up to her and she patted him gently.

"Her voice's back!" Xion sighed in relief and Mickey, Axel, Riku and Roxas cheered and smiled in relief.

"We did it!" Sora cheered happily and shared a loving and happy hug with Kairi while their friends cheered on as Eric, knowing the truth, hurried over to Ariel, holding her in his arms.

"Oh, Sora! This is wonderful!" Kairi said happily, and her eyes locked in with Sora's who nodded in agreement, the familiar and powerful feeling they felt last night dawning on them, and soon they were about to touch each other's lips for a kiss, as were Ariel and Eric...

Too late, the sun had set, and Sora, Kairi and Ariel hadn't made it. They felt pain in their bodies, before Sora, in the most painful transformation in his life, stumbled backwards and the others hadn't been able to catch him on time before he fell overboard and fell into the sea, quickly transforming back into his Naga form for the first time in three days, this time permamently, Kairi and Ariel both transforming back into mermaids much to everyone else's shock, and Ursula's delight.

"NO!" Xion, Roxas, Riku, Mickey and Axel cried out in dismay.

"You're too late! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Ursula cackled evilly. "YOU'RE TOO LATE!" She declared, using electricity of magic, discarding her disguise and revealing her true form, much to the guests' pure horror as they gasped when they saw the truth.

* * *

At sea, seeing the sparks of lightning, Marluxia turned to look and, realizing what happened, he began laughing manically. "Yes...At last!" He declared, before turning to the vessels before thrusting his tail at them, damaging and destorying five ships, causing planes to crash into the sea, and almost hitting Reno's helicopter and the redhead and Rude struggled to reposition the chopper to avoid in crashing while Goofy and everyone else nearly fell out. Cloud and Zack both saved Tifa and Cissnei from falling, and Goofy caught Donald who nearly fell to his death.

"Time to go to collect our newest member." Marluxia told Demyx, diving into the ocean.

"W-w-wait for me, Mar'!" Demyx yelped, quickly following.

"Is it over?" Donald asked, shakily.

"Uh..." Reno began, getting a bad vibe in his skin after the helicopter was back in perfect hovering. "I don't think so."

* * *

Back on the boat, Ursula crawled down the aisle, smacking Eric, Riku, Axel, Mickey and Roxas back where they landed had on the floor, while grabbing Ariel in her arms, and Kairi and Xion, who tried to pull Kairi away, with her tentacles, holding all three of them in a tight grip so that they couldn't escape.

"Hey, those are my friends and sister!" Axel growled as he quickly recovered, but was knocked back when he tried to save the girls.

"So long, losers." Ursula grinned, giving into the ocean with her captives.

"Come back!" Mickey cried out, but he and the others were too late. Knowing what has to be done, he turned to his friends and cried out, "We gotta save them and Sora!" only to scream when the boat rocked, as both Marluxia and Demyx purposely knocked into the boat underneath on their way to collect Sora who laid half unconscious on the ocean floor, groaning as the pain of the transformation still lingered.

"Poor little princess and little orphan." Ursula sneered to Ariel and Kairi, whose clothes fell off when they hit the water, while Xion tried to hold her breath in her attempts to not drown. "It's not you or your human friend that I'm after, though you, Kairi, have more power than I imagined. But I have a bigger fish to-"

"Ursula, STOP!" The sudden shout and appearance of King Triton made Ursula stop in her tracks, that and also that the Trident was aimed at her throat. Sebastian was next to him, glaring angrily at the sea witch going 'Hmph!' at her.

Casually and unworried, Ursula greeted, "Why, King Triton. How are you?"

Triton was in no mood of that, as he ordered in a growl, "Let them and that human go!" even though he still didn't trust humans, not even the human girl trapped in Ursula's grasp deserved this.

"Not a chance, Triton! They're mine now!" Ursula snapped in return, pulling Ariel up by the wrist while holding both Kairi and Xion behind her. "With your daughter, we made a deal, and with the orphan whose parents I took away, she has the power to heal, cure and break all black magic from Nagas, and this human is a little extra prize."

Handing Ariel to the two eels while using her magic to trap Kairi and Xion to the wall as the three of them struggled to pull free, Ursula showed Triton the contract with Ariel's signature on it. Kairi looked worriedly at Xion who was beginning to lose her battle not to drown, and then gazed into the distance and gasped as Marluxia floated over Sora who, regaining consciousness, saw the mermaid he loved trapped along with two of his friends, and Ursula confront the sea king.

"Kairi!" Sora cried out, making to try and move, and fortunately for once his Naga-side not interfering, the cravings didn't hit, but Marluxia pinned his arms to the floor and he cried out, before looking up and glared at the one who wanted him to stay as a Naga. "You!" He hissed.

"Well, Sora. It seems you are no longer welcome in the human world. But do not worry, we'll take good care of you." Marluxia purred cruelly.

"You lied to me! You were hoping that I would eat a person or a mermaid just so I'd end up staying as a Naga forever and help you to take over the world that I love!" Sora accused.

The pink-haired Naga laughed, "Yes, I lied most of the part. Besides, who would love a monster such as you? Of course, I didn't count that you would find true love with a mermaid, yet in order for you to stay a Naga, you had to chew the human or mermaid into pieces, because swallowing them whole would result in what you and your precious lover went through, regardless of the Princess making a deal with Ursula or not."

"But why me?" Sora demanded, struggling to free himself.

"Because our kind is dying, Sora." Marluxia informed him. "For years, humans and other sea kingdoms have reduced our number, one by one. You and your friends were the perfect candidates to restore our former glory, and to become even greater; to rule the world and show those fools what would happen should they try and mess with us! Join me, Sora. Help me save our Naga kind. You are the only one who can do that."

Sora hissed angrily, "Never!"

Marluxia smirked. "I knew you would say that. So, to change your mind, I will Demyx eat your precious true love and your friend..." He said, as Demyx appeared and grabbed both Kairi and Xion in both hands, where they struggled and Ursula, seeing this shrugged as she decided this was a way to get rid of Kairi, and turned her attention to making a new deal with Triton who was torn in saving Ariel or sparing his Kingdom. "...and tear them apart."

Horrified and conflicted himself, Sora was now struggling to make a decision. What should he do? Should he give up his freedom and risk the world for the safety of Kairi and Xion, or lose both of them for the sake of his freedom and the world's safety?

* * *

On the surface, Mickey, Axel, Riku, Roxas and Eric were in Axel's boat to the spot where they hoped to find their four friends who were in trouble, one in the risk of drowning, two who were Ursula's targets, and the last who was in the risk of becoming Marluxia's pawn.

"Hurry, before we lose them!" Mickey cried out to Axel, pleadingly.

"I'm trying to make this boat go faster, but it's not a submarine!" Axel pointed out, yet he wanted to rescue Kairi, Sora, Xion and Ariel more than the others.

* * *

"Now...which will it be?" Marluxia questioned, and the more Sora hesitated, the closer Kairi and Xion were towards Demyx's mouth and the fact that Xion was close to drowning.

Finally, with guilt as he couldn't bear to lose Kairi and Xion, Sora pleadingly replied in surrender, "Fine. I'll join you. Just-just let them go and leave my friends alone!"

"Ha! It's settled! Demyx, release them...but the others are yours!" Marluxia declared, much to Sora's horror and despite Demyx letting lose on both Kairi and Xion who was almost unconscious, Marluxia was still going to have all of his other friends killed and eaten. At the same time, Triton, in the same feeling as Sora, signed his name over Ariel's on the contract, and while Ariel was released from the curse of becoming a worm-like thing, it went towards Triton who shrank and transformed into a full worm-like thing, losing his grip on the Trident and his crown, much to everyone else's horror.

"No!" Sora cried out, only to scream when Marluxia grasped him around the neck with both hands, laughing manically as he began to flow dark magic into Sora's mouth and vanish.

"No!" Xion gurgled, only to gasp and clutch her throat.

"Xion!" Sora screamed, while struggling to fight back Marluxia's control.

"Xion!" Kairi cried out, holding her friend in horror and despair, while gazing at Sora and screamed out, "Sora!" trying to think of something, anything, to help her lover and friends. ' _Please...please help!_ ' She thought desperately.

Unexpectedly and as though her wish came true, Kairi's hands began to glow pink as did her pearl necklace her mother gave her, making her confused as it flowed to Xion's throat before it stopped and the human girl coughed, before stopping and somehow...breathing normally as though she was on land.

"What...how? Kairi...did you use magic to save me?" Xion surprisingly asked.

"I...I guess I did." Kairi admitted, before her eyes widened as a memory came to her; the time when it was her sixth birthday, when her mother gave her this necklace, her words echoed in her mind.

 _"This necklace will unlock the magical power, the power to heal and cure, and stop evil. The desire to help your friends and the one you love; never lose sight of that necklace, Kairi. The light in your heart will drive away the darkness."_

"So this is what mother meant...this is my power to heal...to save everyone." Kairi realized. All that time as she grew older she thought it was a silly thing, which she believed when she was younger. Now she knew that her mother had spoken the truth, and this was what Ursula had feared. "That's why Ursula killed my parents; to stop them from protecting me."

Sora's screaming and Ursula's manical laughter brought her and Xion back to reality and as they both saw Sora's continuing to struggle while Marluxia went completely into Sora's body, with dark mists still surrounding him, seeing Sora's mouth open gave Kairi a risky idea, but she was torn between helping her lover and seeking revenge on Ursula who took away her parents and now took Ariel's father and home.

"I'll try and stop that sea-witch!" Xion said, reading along the lines with her friend. "Please be careful and save Sora, Kairi and you'd better come back alive! Because I don't forgive you if you don't."

Despite knowing the risk, Kairi nodded and replied, "You be careful too. I don't know if the magic I just used will be permament or just this once, so make it count."

The human girl nodded and swam quickly to Ursula who now wore Triton's crown and held the Trident in her grasp, absorbing it's magic into her own veins.

"Stop it, you monster!" Xion yelled, pulling at Ursula's hair, only to be pulled and thrown hard into the wall with Ariel by the furious witch.

"Don't fool with me, you little brat!" Ursula warned, pointing the Trident at the human and mermaid. "Great, now you can breathe underwater, thanks to that magical bra-Aaah!" she screamed as she felt a sharp sting from a harboon on her arm that was stabbed into her skin.

"Hey, don't even think abou-Yeow!" Demyx tried to stop Kairi from getting to the slowly possessed Sora and yelped when something hit him on the shoulder; it was as spear and when he and Ursula looked up, Eric, Mickey, Riku, Roxas and Axel floated there, having dove and were glaring at the two of them.

"Why, you little trolls!" Ursula growled angrily at the group.

"Okay, that's it. Now I'm mad!" Demyx growled, and when he looked at Mickey, he licked his lips and added, "And starving."

"Mickey! Axel! Guys! Get away!" Xion cried out desperately.

"Eric, look out!" Ariel cried out, as both she and Xion were pinned to the rock.

"After them!" Ursula commanded Floatsam and Jetsam, pointing at the group. The eels did as they were told, swimming towards the group who quickly hurried to the surface. Demyx also followed to get his meal.

Despite Axel seeing Kairi about to head to Sora and wanting to get to her, he was pulled along with Roxas to avoid Demyx's wrath and the eels. He gasped when Kairi aimed herself towards Sora's mouth.

"Sora! Open your mouth! I'm going in to save you!" Kairi cried out.

"K-Kairi, no!" Sora grunted, realising what she was about to do, struggling to stop himself from grasping her and eating her himself. But when his mouth opened wide, the mermaid used this to her advantage and swam right into it bravely, and Sora, with brief no control, closed it shut while Kairi swam into the forming dark mist like it was some kind of portal.

' _Kairi, no!_ ' Axel screamed in his mind just as he and the others resurfaced, grasping the side of his boat. But he, Mickey, Riku, Roxas and Eric were grabbed and pulled back into the water by both Demyx and the eels.

Above them in the helicopter as Reno and the others saw Axel and the others, they gasped in horror when they saw his brother and the others dragged back into the water.

"Axel, no!" Reno, Rude, Cloud, and Zack while both Cissnei and Tifa gasped in horror.

Goofy, seeing his friends in trouble, unexpectedly grabbed Donald and despite the others' objections, he yelled as he jumped out of the side of the chopper, "Geronimo!" holding his nose while taking a deep breath for an awkward dive.

Donald screamed and fell less splendidly and the two of them landed in the water with a splash. In the water, Demyx had Mickey in one hand as the latter struggled to pull himself free without drowning, and Axel, Riku and Roxas in the other, and Eric was trapped in the tails of Floatsam and Jetsam. Sebastian and Flounder, seeing Eric in trouble, swam up to the eels to save the Prince's life. Sebastian used his claw to pinch Floatsam's tail, causing the eel to scream in pain, while Flounder slapped Jetsam's face several times before the two swam away while the eels, having been attacked, were forced to release Eric and glaring at the crab and fish.

"There they are!" Goofy gurbled, pointing at his friends where Demyx was about to eat Mickey first. Without thinking and holding a spear, Goofy and a reluctanted Donald swam towards them. First they swam behind the Naga and while Goofy stabbed Demyx in the same spot where Axel had thrown the spear earlier, causing Demyx to yelp in pain, Donald got in front and punched the Naga in the nose.

"Yow!" Demyx yelped, inadvertedly loosening his grip on his captives who both quickly swam away and hesitated to try and get to Sora, though Roxas went to Xion who followed him, and Ariel made to follow, but was stuck as Ursula made to attack Eric, Mickey saw what was about to happen.

* * *

Inside Sora's mind, emerged from the mist, Kairi found herself floating in air, and saw that Sora, in his normal human form, was being in bind by a smaller version of Marluxia who towered over him as he was saying, "You belong to me now, Sora. Soon, our Naga race will thrive once more and the world will be ours!"

"Not if I can help it!" Kairi declared, getting both of their attentions and while Sora was shocked and worried for Kairi's safety as she somehow appeared in his mind and not in his stomach, Marluxia was furious. "You leave Sora alone, Marluxia!"

"Not a chance, mermaid! He's mine, now!" Marluxia declared.

"Kairi, get outta here!" Sora pleaded, "You'll be eaten!"

"I was eaten when Ursula took my parents away, Sora. I'm not going to lose you too! Or Axel, or Xion, or anyone else!" Kairi pointed out, her necklace glowing brightly, as she declared, "Sora...I love you!"

Instantly, the entire area was bursted in light which had Marluxia nearly blinded as he yelled, "Ugh! What!?" before seeing too late that Kairi, in her desire to save the one she truly loved, held her hands out and a burst of light shot out, blasting at Marluxia who screamed and was blasted away and vanished.

Sora, freed and the binds on him disappearing and the naga-vains that haunted his mind for two years slowly began to vanish along with the dark mist. Kairi cried out his name before she suddenly found herself surrounded in light and back inside the giant Sora's mouth. Just as she thought she was about to be swallowed up again, Kairi saw that the mouth was opening and, seeing her chance to escape while worried for her lover's state of mind, swam out quickly as Sora, with Marluxia's dark mist leaving his body and reforming the evil Naga back to solid form, was panting and groaning as he began to shrink and transform back into his human from, weakened.

"Sora!" Kairi screamed, swimming over to her lover who fully returned to normal, grabbing him and began pulling him back up to the surface as her magical power she never used before and desire to save and restore him to his true form somehow broke the spell in a new way that not even Marluxia had heard of before.

Ursula, also seeing this, grinned as she pointed the Trident at Eric, Kairi and Sora, evilly telling Ariel, "Say goodbye to your friends and your sweetheart."

' _No you don't, ya' monster!_ ' Mickey growled in his mind, as well as having an idea on how to stop Demyx once and for all and wanting a bit of revenge on him for trying to eat Mickey himself, swimming behind Ursula, nodding at Ariel to escape and leave this to him, and while the mermaid hurried up, Mickey pulled hard on Ursula's hair and yanked her back painfully.

Distracted by the sudden painful pull, Ursula aimed wrong and the powerful deadly blast shot up and zapped not only Demyx, but also Floatsam and Jetsam, all three of them screaming as they were electrocuted before exploding into tiny white scales.

"NO! Demyx! Not you too!" Marluxia yelled in dismay, seeing his only Naga companion suddenly zapped to death and now realized, with Kairi somehow returning Sora to human form with her magic, and Demyx now dead, he was the last surviving Naga in the entire world.

"Babies!" Ursula exclaimed in horror, realizing what she'd had done to her servants who were also her precious little ones, holding their remains in her hands, sobbing. "My poor little poopsies!"

Furiously, both Marluxia and Ursula glared up angrily at both Kairi and Mickey as they and their friends were the ones who ruined everything. It was all their fault! THEIR FAULT! Now wanting nothing more than to kill them to get what they wanted, Marluxia's eyes glowed a dangerous red as he surrounded himself with his magic, while Ursula used the power of the Trident to make herself grow, much to the horror of Sebastian and Flounder, the latter quivering in fear.

* * *

Back on the surface, Axel and the others were helping Mickey and the slowly recovering Sora onto the boat, the latter coughing weakly while Ariel and Eric swam towards each other.

"K-Kairi?" Sora asked, weakly, sitting up as he slowly regained his strength. "I-I'm really sorry! I-"

"I had to save you, Sora. It's okay!" Kairi replied, before telling him and the others urgently, "You have to get away, now!"

"No! I'm not leaving you again!" Sora replied stubbornly.

"Hey, what's goin' on!?" Donald demanded, the only one being utterly confused.

"Uh, fellas!?" Goofy cried out as he saw something that made the situation only get worse, which the others only saw what he was seeing when they heard splashing and a thunderous evil laughter. They couldn't believe what they were seeing; it was Ursula who had now grown into a giantess, towering over Ariel and Eric who both couldn't believe it either. It only got worse as Kairi, Sora and their friends were being washed aside when a more monsterous-snake like Marluxia emerged, towering over them as both Sora and Axel managed to hold onto Kairi as they watched on in horror, as did everyone still in the helicopter who couldn't believe what was happening.

Donald and Goofy both screamed and clinged onto each other in fear, quivering.

" _ **You fools! Your hearts have led you to oblivion!**_ " Marluxia boomed at them.

"Watch out!" Mickey cried out, as Marluxia made to attack them. Axel powered up his boat while Sora brought Kairi onboard to save her and they managed to dodge the now insane Naga's attack, while Ariel and Eric avoided the giant Ursula's tentacle from crushing them.

" _ **Now I am the ruler of all the ocean! The waves obey my every whim!**_ " Urslua declared, using the Trident to create a storm far worse than a hurricane, waves that were monsters and tidal waves, winds and rain that not even the helicopter could stand. In fact, the joint-stick in front of Reno snapped and the redhead examined it in confusion at first before he and the others realized in horror and gasped, before they all screamed as the chopper spun out of control and from Reno's brother and his friends with him in the boat.

Sora, Kairi and their friends found themselves on top of a tidal wave and a violent bump caused by Marluxia's tail as he, deciding to handle Ursula later, thrusted at them with his scales now covered in spikes that looked like rose thorns, causing Sora to fall overboard, much to everyone else's horror.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out, reaching out for him.

"Eric!" Ariel cried out as the waves were pulling her and Eric away from each other, and both Eric and Sora landed into the water.

" _ **Soon all humans and merpeople are to be my course meal!**_ " Marluxia declared, thrusting his tail at the group again, this time sending them flying into the air and as they screamed they landed into the water themselves before resurfacing with difficulty, while at the same time, nearing land as they were no where near in helping Axel and the others despite Reno's objections, the group in the helicopter had no choice but to jump out onto the beach, screaming while the helicopter crashed and exploded into the ocean. Reno, Rude, Cloud, Tifa, Zack and Cissnei landed in a tumble and roll on the sand before coming to a stop.

At the same time, Ursula began to, literally, stir the ocean with the Trident, creating a giant whirlpool and making sunken ships to resurface and sail around under her control. Kairi, Axel, Xion, Roxas who pulled Xion up, Riku, Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Ariel all clinged onto a rock, while Eric hauled himself onto one of the ships, having an idea and climbed onto the deck. Sora, clinging onto another, saw an usual blade sticking out on the side of the ship, and when he pulled it, having an idea to use it to stab Marluxia in the heart as he was told that hearts were Naga's weakest spots, he saw that it was a sword shaped like a Key; A Keyblade, as legend would say that one who used it would use it to vanquish evil.

The moment Sora did, the silver blade with the crown-shaped key-matching his crown necklace-, golden armor around the hilt glowed and Sora's eyes widened in amazement before nodding as also heard that a keyblade choose it's master, and somehow choose him. No wonder Marluxia wanted him so bad. Sora was similiar to Kairi.

Nodding to himself, Sora climbed up the rest of the way on the boat, knowing that was heading towards Marluxia unexpectedly and he climbed up to the top. Ursula, seeing Kairi, Ariel and their friends, blasted them with the Trident, smashing the rock and sending them falling right to the bottom of the whirl where it was dry. Just as Ursula, and Marluxia, who saw them, blasted deadly magic at them, Axel and Riku scooped up Kairi and Ariel in their arms before they, Mickey, Roxas and Xion dodged their attacks, and Roxas pushing Xion out of the way, while being briefly hit on the arm and he cried out in pain.

"Roxas!" Xion cried out, worriedly, gently holding his arm in concern.

All nine of them, finding themselves trapped, looked up at Marluxia laughed evilly and declared with a grin, preparing to finish them off, " _ **This is the end of you all!**_ "

Ursula did the same as she prepared while saying, mainly to Ariel and Kairi, " _ **So much for true love!**_ "

Kairi, Ariel, Xion, Axel, Mickey, Roxas, Riku, Goofy and Donald could only watch on in fear before holding each other and braced themselves for their end.

"Not if I can help it, Marluxia!" Sora shouted behind the Naga, and when Marluxia looked and turned, his eyes widened as the teenager held his new Keyblade in hand, glaring at him angrily. "Leave Kairi and the others alone!" He shouted.

Without waiting a reply, Sora jumped and as Marluxia wondered where did Sora get the ancient Keyblade, he was too late to stop him as Sora thrusted the weapon right into Marluxia's chest and his heart as deep as he could. Horrified, Marluxia screamed in pure agony, while behind him, Eric, who'd been steering one of the ships, thrusted the pointy sharp part towards Ursula who also saw too late which made her stop what she was doing and was stabbed right into the stomach and she screamed in pain.

" _ **Nooooooooo!**_ " Marluxia yelled a dying scream, as both he and Ursula were zapped by the latter's powers as both of them sank and began die, disappearing and fading. In the water and on land, Sebastian, Flounder, Cloud, Zack, Tifa, Reno, Rude and Cissnei had to shield their eyes from the blinding exploding light as the giant Naga and the Sea Witch were vanquished.

Quickly resurfacing after the ocean returned to normal, Kairi and Ariel helped Sora and the others to shore, while Eric collasped on the sand, exhausted. Under the sea, as the Trident, free from Ursula's control, floated down while the curse Ursula caused for many years became broken. All of those she made deals with began to revert back to their original merfolk forms, including King Triton who was also restored and picked up his Trident with a smile.

* * *

Early the next morning, watching Ariel who rested on a rock as she sadly gazed at Eric, knowing that she would have to say goodbye to him forever, were Kairi, Sora, Axel, Xion, Mickey, Goofy, Riku and Roxas with sad expressions of their own, with Donald, Reno, Rude, Cloud, Tifa, Zack and Cissnei watching in the distance. They were told of what happened after Axel, relieved that his brother had been safe after being told what happened, finally admitted to truth about his friendship with Kairi, which at first Reno was angry about, but after seeing how close his brother was with the rather cute mermaid, cooled down and forgiven him, understanding.

Now that everyone in the ocean knew that Kairi had been telling the truth, she'd been offered to be welcomed to live in Atlantica due to her magical powers of healing. Though this also meant she would have to leave behind her dear friends of the surface.

"Poor Ariel." Mickey sighed.

"She was so close too." Riku sighed.

"At least Sora's now free from being a Naga, thanks to Kai' here." Axel shrugged, trying to lighten the mood a little, but winched when he realized it was a dumb thing to say. "Uh, sorry. That didn't come out right."

"It's okay. The Nagas are all gone and everyone's safe now." Sora replied, though he wasn't really cheerful either. He could only share a sad glance with Kairi, both knowing that they would have to say goodbye as Kairi, being a mermaid, couldn't live on land. "I just...wish you could stay, Kairi."

"Me too, Sora. But...it's for the best. Can you at least take care of Axel while I keep Ariel company?" Kairi requested.

"You have my word." Sora nodded, sighing. Remembering what she'd told him when she saved him in his mind, he finally decided to tell her his feelings, even with an audience around. "I love you too, Kairi."

Tears forming in her eyes, Kairi shared an embraced with Sora, not wanting to let go and not wanting this moment to end. Axel and Xion both shared a sad look and sighed, knowing that neither of them, Mickey, Goofy, Riku and Roxas would see Kairi or Ariel ever again.

Or so they thought.

Watching both groups, were Triton and Sebastian who sighed. The king, having seen and learned that Eric and Sora had saved them all with the help of their friends and Kairi, finally understood what Ariel had known all along; humans were not all bad. Life on the surface was much like life under the sea; there were good people and there were bad people, and there were good fish and bad fish, like Ursula and Marluxia.

Not only that, but Kairi had known and been friends with a human who, despite being a human, was like an older brother to her.

"Ariel and Kairi really do love that prince and Sora, don't they, Sebastian?" Triton asked.

Sebastian nodded, before explaining, "Well, it's like Xion once told me, your majesty. Everyone deserves to have their own lives. Even everyone in the ocean."

"You-were told that?" Triton asked skeptically, which made the crab laugh sheepishly. The merman sighed, before concluding, "Kairi is very close to her friends. I believe she has finally found her rightful place; to be with the one she loves. Though there is one problem left with Ariel."

"And what's that, your majesty?"

"...How much I'm going to miss her."

Sebastian was confused at first, until he realized what the King was about to do. Triton gently tapped the now glowing Trident onto the water and two glowing trails like a fork in a road travelled towards to both Kairi and Ariel, which Kairi's group noticed first and their eyes widened when the light touched her and Ariel on the rock. When both mermaids looked down along with Kairi's lover and friends, they realized what was going on and looked up at the King in surprise and smiles while the king nodded approvingly, and Reno's group looked on in awe.

Soon enough, gone was Kairi's tail and in it's place once more, this time permamently, were her pair of legs, and her clothes from before reappearing and restored. Happily and at first believing this was a dream, Sora helped Kairi to stand and spun her around happily, both of them happily laughing and then shared the passionate kiss they longed for, while near them, Ariel, back as a human and in a glittering and stunning blue dress, walked up to Eric who woke up and the two happily embraced and kissed as well.

As soon as Sora and Kairi's long and loving kiss stopped, Axel happily hugged both his adoptive sister and friend, quickly joined by Mickey, Goofy, Riku, Xion and Roxas who all happily shared a group hug with their two friends who were finally fully human, together and here to stay. Best part was, Ariel and Eric were together at long last forever as well.

* * *

Weeks later, on the newly restored wedding boat, Ariel was in a stunning wedding dress as she and Eric were kissing and happily married, both of them joined by Max who was happy to have Ariel welcomed into the family. Everyone on the boat, including Sora, Kairi, Axel, Xion, Roxas, Mickey, Goofy, Riku, Donald, Reno, Rude, Cloud, Tifa, Cissnei and Zack, and even the merfolk in the water near the boat all cheered and celebrated happily, though both Donald, and Carlotta cried their eyes out at the beautiful scene.

When it was time for the boat to leave, Ariel, Kairi and even Axel had a moment to say goodbye to Scuttle and Flounder, promising to visit soon, the latter waving an emotional goodbye while the former, having helped lift the little fish up, winked at the two former mermaids and Axel gave the bird a thumbs up.

At the wedding cake, Goofy stood next to it while Sebastian was on top of it, both of them tearing up happily, until Louis, seeing Sebastian, attempted to cleave him in half. Panicking, Goofy picked up Sebastian and made a run for it with the crazy chef hot on his and Sebastian's tail until the two noticed a rope attached to a mast and then had an idea.

"Aha! Yeaaaaaaaa!" Louis yelled, only to realise too late as Goofy and Sebastian both cheekily grinned while the former held the latter in his palm up and Sebastian cut the rope with his claw, the mast came swinging right at Louis, smacking him right in the face and some of his teeth fell out before he fell onto the floor, unconscious.

"Hooray! Ay-yhuck!" Goofy cheered, while bouncing a victorious Sebastian into the ocean where the crab rejoined Flounder and Scuttle who were proud of them and he bowed to them.

"Way to go, Goofy!" Mickey cheered his friend, sharing a high-five with Goofy who blushed.

"Gawrsh." Goofy said, bashfully.

Finally, Kairi and Ariel met with Triton who used magic to hover to their height, and while Kairi curtised to the king, Ariel hugged her father lovingly.

"Thank you, your majesty." Kairi said.

"I love you, Daddy." Ariel said.

Behind the two former mermaids, Sora, Eric, Axel, Riku and Roxas bowed while Xion curtised their respects and promise to take care of Kairi and Ariel, and Triton smiled warmly at the humans who had not only saved the world, but also shown him the real truth and new respect for humans. With a final caress of his daughter, Triton sank back into the water, and Ariel blew up a goodbye kiss, before she, her new husband and their friends waved a goodbye to everyone in the ocean and Triton used his Trident to create a beautiful rainbow.

As their friends of the ocean dove back into the sea, Roxas shyly twined fingers with Xion's and the two blushed before sharing their own kiss, having become a couple themselves and Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Riku, Goofy and Axel smiled happily, before Ariel and Eric shared another kiss.

And as for Sora and Kairi, they shared a loving look before they held each other in their arms and shared their own loving kiss, together forever, not only with each other, but also with their friends.

 _ **THE END**_

* * *

 **A/N: Thus end's the story of the Mermaid and the Giant Sea Naga. But already thinking up new ideas for this, I'm now thinking of writing a sequel or posting a rewrite of "The Magic Kingdom" which tells three scenarios of three kingdoms.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story and hopefully I'll update my other stories soon. Until then, farewell until next time.**

 **See you later!**


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